Corrupted Lands
by NamelessNarrator
Summary: Two centuries after Twilight Sparkle's ascension, the pony races are nearly gone. The ancient kingdom of Equestria cannot be traversed safely, and deadly beasts roam the land. Will ponies recover from this horror, or is the time of their rule over?
1. New Hope: Twilight's entry I

I've never expected to be put into a ruling position. After all, the immortal sisters Celestia and Luna have led our country for longer than even history books can recount. It has not been even two centuries since I was crowned the princess of Friendship, a fancy name for a head diplomat in training, and yet I'm here, trying to save what little remains of pony races from extinction.

It started nearly a hundred years ago.

First, we lost contact with smaller villages on the western border of Equestria. Our caravans bearing disaster relief got lost one by one without a single pony being seen ever again. Scrying magic showed nothing more than empty landscape and towns without life, not ruined, only looking as if all ponies simply got up and left. When Vanhoover and Las Pegasus went dark, princess Celestia and the elite members of Royal Guard went to investigate. Only a single one of them returned to Canterlot, exhausted and barely conscious. After a failed questioning, he was left alone to recuperate.

The information he brought was disturbing.

Princess Celestia's batallion of Royal Guards had been attacked by equine creatures of unnatural resilience and tenacity. At first, the isolated encounters had not been overly threatening, and the soldiers pressed onwards, looking for the base of these "Corrupted", as the princess named them. The further the assault force marched, the more their surroundings changed from normal Equestrian countryside to the new biome they associated with these strange new "ponies". As far as we know, there is no single "look" of the corrupted areas, but they are easily discernable by the surroundings being darker than usual, the colours of nature dimmer, and there is a lingering unnatural stillness in the air. From our long-term observation we have deduced that particular groups of Corrupted make their territory look in a specific way, from tundra or grassland to frozen wasteland.

But I digress. Forgive my curiosity, because while these creatures are deadly, they are also extremely fascinating.

As princess Celestia's soldiers marched through White Tail Woods, the Corrupted attacks became more frequent, the attackers more numerous, and the creatures themselves tougher. The final day the pony force split into two - one small group staying behind to take care of the wounded, and the main unit pressing on to secure a new area where those recovering could be moved to. The surviving guard had been on the morning watch the night before, so he was resting before having to move the encampment.

When he woke up, he wasn't alone.

Surrounded by his colleagues tainted by this new evil, the resting wounded being twisted into more and more Corrupted, he was "allowed" to go. He had no idea what happened or how the corruption hit the entire Royal Guard force over several hours, but he had to bring the first even barely clear news about the lost land. We had no way to verify the survivor's words at the time, as our scrying showed only empty land tainted by corruption. That was when we learned our observation magic was useless.

Over the next hundred years we lost... pretty much everything.

As mentioned before, Vanhoover and Las Pegasus were the first two major cities to be taken. The Crystal Empire went dark next, due to our train tracks no longer being safe from attacks. Air travel went down in one fell swoop. While increased security allowed our trains to the eastern coast to run for several more years, as soon as the Corrupted twisted the land they occupied any aerial transport became impossible. The Corrupted cannot fly, no matter their size or shape, but the land itself forms large tendrils able to reach the sky at shocking speed and pull even fastest pegasi down. Airships have no chance. Eventually, Canterlot and Ponyville became the last two pony cities we could defend. In the end, even Canterlot city fell, leaving only the castle free from corruption due to ancient protective spells. Why did we decide to let our ancient seat of power fall instead of a semi-rural town?

Simple answer - land.

With all our trade routes gone, Canterlot had no way of feeding its inhabitants. We turned Ponyville into a fortress for years, but ponies don't heal as fast as Corrupted, and certainly not breed as fast. We would have gone extinct long time ago if it weren't for a group of farmers coming up with an idea for growing mushrooms and several kinds of vegetables underground using artificial light. These days, we control only a small area around my old castle made by the Tree of Harmony. Thankfully, while the Tree still responded to our magic the castle grew roots spreading far enough that we could hollow them out and make room for the thousand or so ponies who remain. Along with the secret route to Canterlot castle and its two hundred inhabitants under the leadership of princess Luna, that's all what's left of the equine races. At least those we know of.

 _\- an excerpt from princess Twilight Sparkle's notes on the Era of corruption._


	2. New Hope: Forest expedition

"How is it, Nightshade?" a dark grey, blue-maned batpony named Lunar Watch asks me quietly.

"Clear and calm, sir!" I answer in hushed tones as well.

"Are you sure?"

Aaaand here it comes. Yes, it is getting dark. Yes, this damn corrupted forest would be dim even in the light of the day. And yes, pegasi like me don't have the same nighttime capabilities like thestrals, but he really shouldn't make it THAT obvious he doesn't think I should be here.

Also, yes, he is a plothole.

It takes all my self-control to not hiss at him. In the end, however, he is my boss, and this is an extremely important mission, so I just nod.

"Nothing has moved in the past ten minutes. This place seems to be as clear as the briefing stated."

"Let's hope that's the case. I could use a bit more to eat for lunch."

I don't have to be a unicorn to read the wishful thinking of everypony around. There is at least one thing all of us can agree on - the rationing system in Ponyville enclave sucks.

I wish I was a changeling. You bang a guy, and you are fed for the day. But noooo! I have to be a damn pegasus in an age where flying outside is forbidden. I wonder how out ancestors before the corruption felt, soaring through the endless sky, wings burning when fighting their way through a storm.

Oh well, these days it's either walk on hoof or get a healthy dose of those freaking wine flytraps.

I shouldn't have thought about food, as my stomach quickly reminds me. Scouting parties like we are don't go outside well-supplied. The protocol says that it is too wasteful and risky. Shows how much the upper brass trusts us. Okay, the chances of us getting here were pretty slim, but with how important this area is they should have given us a bit more food, equipment... ponies.

There is only five of us. On the other hoof, considering how much every pony is needed back in the enclave five is a lot of resources to spend on exploration. Usually, this is done by sole trappers or hunters, not soldiers. So yeah, here's me, Nightshade -a lovely and completely awesome grey pegasus mare with flowing silvery mane I take good care of, thank you for asking, who is an exotic piece of plot because most of the pegasi are dead. Yes, that is not cynicism, that is simple observation- then there is the bosshole -heh, a new nickname to share!- Lunar, and three other soldiers I don't know personally, one unicorn mare and two earthpony stallions.

Considering how much unicorns fear going outside with the threat of horn rot wherever you look, I think the girl has bigger balls than either of the earthponies.

Horn rot, nasty stuff. I remember an anatomy lesson from basic training where they showed us the progress of the infection, bleh. Unicorn and alicorn magic works well against Corrupted, but if they get close enough to spread it to you, then it's either a bye bye to the piece of bone that makes you special, or the quick spread of corruption twisting you over few days into one of... them.

Don't get wet, don't get wet! They can smell it.

I've got a little... kink, let's say. I would never act on it, I'm not crazy, but the tentacles and unnatural members of the Corrupted. Phew, even the earthponies can only dream of those shapes and sizes. If I ever met a male Breeder, alone, and without the threat of being transformed, I would be on my belly with ass sticking up in no time, panting like a bitch in heat.

Damn! Calm yourself, girl! Deep breaths! In and out. Much better. Think of the mission!

I got carried away a little. Thankfully, nopony -and mostly no Corrupted- noticed.

"This place is weird," I hear a whisper of the other mare in the group, "Not that I mind, it's not as dark as everywhere else."

She's right. Let me explain.

The Corrupted own the surface around Ponyville, and from what I heard the entire... Equestria, was it? That's what the history books up in the castle call the land we live under, right? So, several weeks ago a scout returned with the news that he had found an area free of Corrupted near the enclave. In light of that information the unicorn mages performed a survey of the land and came to the conclusion that it is fertile, and that with the help of chemistry -my little talent and the reason for me being included on this trip- it should be possible to use it to grow crops quickly and with minimal exposure to the Corrupted. We are here to check this part of the forest for threats, assess its suitability for farming on site, and set up a little device which would serve as a beacon for our mining parties razing underground tunnels leading here from Ponyville.

I must admit the scout was correct. This area looks completely different from the mushroomy, swamp-like ground of the Corrupted I know from Ponyville. It's much colder, for one, crispy cold, only without the wind. So much nicer...

Don't judge me! I love winter. How the white snow hides all the dark tracks of the corruption, how the fresh air stings your nose after the stillness and warmth of the underground... I love taking outside shifts in winter, no matter the danger. It's pretty weird feeling like that in the middle of spring, but hey, such is life in the zone.

So yeah, the trees here feel, for lack of a better word, fragile. The entire place is still only a part of a bigger forest, but the leaves shifted from dark green to light blue when we entered, as if covered with thick rime. Frozen woods would be a pretty accurate term, if it accounted for no water actually involved. We left Ponyville in the morning, and after a day of careful sneaking we are already here. If this place is really as good as the spell showed then the tunnels leading here should be finished in mere two or three weeks, and then MORE FOOD FOR EVERYPONY, YAY!

Speaking of which...

"We should assess the soil first, sir," I say, rummaging through my backpack, "In case we have to leave quickly."

"Alright," Lunar whispers and makes several gestures to the other ponies who quietly spread out.

The guard pattern is clear. Nopony goes out of sight of the others, and all make as little noise as possible. Corrupted may be vastly stronger, faster, and tougher than ponies, but that does not mean they PREFER direct confrontation.

In the middle of a square of ponies, I spread a blanket and put several vials full of chemicals on it. First, I have to scoop a bit of soil, scratch off what little tree bark I can, and grab some leaves for analysis. The chemicals bubble when I test each sample one by one, and...

...tyadaa! The carefully crafted acids melt away some parts of the soil, but what remains tells me that farming here would definitely be a fantastic idea. The less great result is that it seems that the entire biome is connected so much that cutting down some trees to make space for farmland would lower the soil's usefulness drastically. I wave at the others to come back.

"So?" Lunar asks.

"The area is fertile enough to support our style of quick farming, but the projected amount will be lower. All in all, if the farmers think of a good spread of crops to plant here WITHOUT touching the natural flora then this place will become our biggest source of surface crops," I report. I might be a part of the Hex Guard, but my flower and vial cutie mark isn't just for show.

"Excellent," he smacks his lips, doubtlessly thinking of how much more food he's gonna get. I can't blame him, my mouth is watering as well, "Pack your stuff, let's finish the patrol and then we can go back home. This place gives me the creeps."

When we go back to sneaking through crunchy, frozen -and at the same time not- grass, I only pray that the rumors about us being alone here are true. Not so much for our safety, we are well-trained and equipped enough to deal with one or two Corrupted, definitely of the lower class, but mostly I pray for the land to be free due to the rumbling of my stomach. We, as soldiers, get to eat a little more than the civillians so that we can keep our strength up through training, but that does not mean it is anywhere close to comfortable.

Darkness falls, and the final part of our mission is at hoof - setting up a fake camp which is easy to find, and observe whether there are any Corrupted who are purely nocturnal. According to our gathered information they have no set sleep cycle, and rest only after their hunting for food or mate is done. Gathering food, to be precise. They seem to be herbivores, although some have been seen transforming wounded ponies into some sort of black mush and then eating them. But hey, the ponies were plants at the time... I think.

I'd much rather be filled with their- nevermind.

I COULD try to find a lone Drone or a female Breeder to satisfy my urges, but the town of Ponyville, not the castle enclave, is home to a pretty deadly hive, and if I even tried to approach one I would have the entire town on my ass, literally in most cases. Out here... I mean, there are ponies who are partially corrupted, those bitten and wounded, or those who got out of breeding attempts. Most succumb to the wild desire as the corruption progresses and have to be killed, but those who don't submit lead normal lives, only sometimes a little more active on the sex front.

Why is the horizontal waltz so important?

The creatures are in tune with their instincts, and what those boil down to is eating and mating. While eating is set mostly by the body, and the partially corrupted ponies still need only a certain amount of food, breeding is a different cup of body fluids. We have very strict laws regarding foals due to our limited supply of food, but nopony really cares how we make this miserable existence bearable. Strangely enough, the corruption does not spread from the partially infected. The general rule is that the more powerful the Corrupted is, the faster and irresistible his spread of corruption is. Drones and female Breeders are the weakest Corrupted we know of, and they are mostly passive, some even friendly, well, not outright hostile. I'm not into mares, but a Breeder's big, hanging teats, and wet-

Nevermind, this place is getting to me.

Hey, the guys even managed to make a small campfire while I stood on watch! Too bad it's only for the fake camp... with real tents. Our night will be spent by patrolling and sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground some distance away.

Morning comes mere two and a half eternities later. Nights are unbearably long with nerves like guitar strings and eyes peeled for any signs of movement. Thankfully, Lunar Watch is hopped on coffee and nocturnal to boot, so he takes the brunt of the shift himself. He might be a racist bastard, but he's a good Nightguard.

My turn to watch is accompanied by sun slowly rising behind low-hanging silver clouds. I munch on some pressed hay biscuits which only serve to tell me how hungry I really are, but at least I have something to do while watching the clearing with the fake camp. The surroundings light up with the day taking hold, and the others wake up as well.

"Not even a fallen leaf, sir." I report the result of my vigilance.

"Good job, for a pegasus," the batpony didn't leave out a jab, "Let's make sure it's really clear, pack up, and go home. The high-ups can grab more supplies and come here themselves if they want a long-term observation set up. Nightshade, plant the guiding device! Fortress, you and Sturdy Gate clear the camp! High Wish, hide all trails we had a vantage point here."

"Yes, sir!" we salute and go about our business.

Before we head off, I need to answer the call of nature. As much as I like my privacy, I don't dare venture too far away.

I loud sniff nearby almost makes me let it out right here an now.

"Shi-!"

A leg swipes at me, but if there is one thing smaller ponies have an advantage over the Corrupted in it is agility. The few pony lengths to the clearing should be easy. A second and third body on each of my sides prove otherwise. The time for secrecy is over.

"RUN!" I yell as I jump over a clump of branches in front of me and gallop through the clearing, "HUNTERS!"

Lunar turns towards me just as something wraps around my hind leg and I plant my muzzle to the grass. A hoof followed by a heavy body steps on my back and all movement I have left is turning my head. Four sets of hooves surround me, I look up to a black mouth full of sharp teeth, and a long tongue which crawls inside my ear. The long muzzles, lean bodies, and size similar to an expansive earthpony tell me that the Hunter guess was right. Five Corrupted against three ponies is a done deal, but if my mates can distract them long enough for me to get some chemicals from my saddlebag I have several firebombs which even the Corrupted don't like.

"RETREAT!" I hear Lunar's voice, "The mission comes first!"

"What?" I twist and struggle without result under my captor, "LUNAR, COME BACK YOU STINKING FLYING RAT!-"

The hoof holding me pushes my head into the ground.

A mouth grabs me by the neck and rolls me over. I have a clear sight of the Hunter above me and the three other Hunters around. Perhaps the last one is chasing Lunar and might bite his ballsack off, the worthless coward! I don't care what the protocol says! How could they just leave me he-

The hunter growls, and I freeze.

"So, what now, monster?" I say defiantly. Not that he understands a thing, but it makes me feel better about my impending future.

Three long and slick tentacles slip out of the sheath between his hind legs. Turning my head away just grants me a good look on the others. A heavily breathing mouth licks my muzzle again.

Hmmm... he doesn't actually smell bad. Sweat, fresh grass, desire. Taking a deep breath of his bestial scent is all my body needs to answer his lust.

I guess I'll get everything I secretly wanted and a lot more on top.


	3. New Hope: Strange company

The black, shiny tendrils of the Hunter above me reach out of his sheath, one clearly headed towards my mouth, one leaving a sticky trail on my belly, and one sliding down my inner thigh.

Okay, okay, there's just four of them, and they are still only Hunters. After Drones, these are the weakest Corrupted, so if I play my cards right I might get out of this in one still thinking piece. All I need to do is not make them mad, have them enjoy their time with me, and keep remembering that I'm still a pony, rather than a more than willing pouch for their seed. Right? Easy!

I only wish my body wouldn't make the last part so damn... inviting.

Alright, focus!

I carefully move my legs, and when the Hunter does nothing to stop me I pull the tendril closest to my muzzle inside my mouth and lick it. The Hunter lets out a low moan as an answer.

Definitely not as bad as I thought.

I keep going, and it seems my only half-fake eagerness surprised the Hunter. As long as I don't stop sucking he makes no moves to go for my hind parts, and his two other tentacles only keep slithering all over my body.

Mmmm it tastes so good... strong... warm...

GET A GRIP!

I already am, and it's in my m-

Right, right, I AM NOT, I repeat - AM NOT, enjoying this whatsoever.

More approaching hoofsteps make me stop, but the Hunter does not press forward. In fact, he takes several steps away from me. Perhaps the Hunter who left to chase Lunar finally returned with him and the others want to plunder his ass first? That would be fun to watch. Free from the body atop me, I look in the direction of the newcomer.

Newcomers.

In the second I turn my head I know I'm dead. If I was really lucky I could have survived the Hunters and possibly returned to Ponyville, spent few days under observation for the spread of corruption, and then returned back to my duties. Hey, I'm not THAT weird for a pony, I know some others who have a thing for semi-corrupted mares. The dark and oily fur which is the first sign of corruption has some appeal to the adventurous, after all. Sadly, the one of the two approaching Corrupted assure me that the pony called Nightshade will not be returning anywhere, and will spend the rest of her existence being mindlessly rutted by anything and everything. Such is the life of a female Breeder.

One of the incoming duo really is the Hunter who left to chase my unit, but the other one is a Corruptor, undoubtedly being the alpha of the wandering group.

Corruptors are special in that they don't have to look like ponies, and the best way to describe them is like a corruption given solid form, rather than a corrupted pony. This one looks like a hybrid of a wolf and an equine, completely black and dripping inky liquid from his coat. As the name we gave them suggests, their main purpose is to infest faster and deeper than any other type we know of. Well, possibly a Queen, but nopony has ever met one and lived to tell the tale.

Talons form from the Corruptor's front hooves and squeeze my neck. As I open my mouth to gasp for breath, he opens his and pushes some wriggling mass inside me.

I choke, I cry, I struggle. The longer it lasts, the more I like it, though. I moan with the mass sliding down my throat, its twisting sending shivers down my spine. I stop resisting, and push myself up to get more of the living infestation into me.

An ear-splitting screech wakes me up from my trance, and I start choking again as my throat resumes its natural function. Or perhaps being penetrated by a long, thick appendage is its true purpose. Filled and-

Mental slap, right now!

Through wet eyes I can't see what's going on, but the Corruptor's twisted tongues get ripped out of my abused throat. A quick wipe of my face lets me get a good look at the black body of my assaulter flying away and breaking several of the strange pale trees around.

The Hunters are backing away from something else.

The owner of this forest is my first thought. It has to be him. A light grey, almost white, Hunter with light blue hue similar to the frozen leaves on the trees flowing through his form. The Corruptor gurgles something, and the Hunters jump at the white one. I have no idea how a single Hunter can fight off five others AND a Corruptor.

After about a minute I get a pretty good answer. The white one doesn't seem much stronger or faster than the others, but he does not stay down no matter how badly he is struck. It has to be something about the connection of the Corrupted with their surroundings, because right here, inside this cold forest, the white Hunter is slowly but methodically wiping the floor with the invaders. He has to be the reason the Ponyville scout thought this part of the forest to be empty.

As I stare in utter shock at the ending fight, my body lurches to the side along with a spike of burning pain from my front leg. The Corruptor is clutching it in his mouth and dragging me away.

"AAH!"

My pained yelp brings the white Hunter's attention to us, and he starts chasing. The Corruptor is faster despite being hurt and having to drag me through the leaves, branches, and grass. I can't feel the leg in his mouth anymore. That's probably a good thing. Thank you, adrenaline overdose! You are a true friend, not like the living and breathing abortion survivor Lunar freaking Watch.

I'm about to do something really dumb.

Passing a thin enough tree, I wrap the three remaining legs I control around it. My leg twists and slips inside the Corruptor's mouth, and I gulp down the bile rising up my throat as he lets go and I see the shredded flesh with bone peeking through.

The white one jumps over me and tackles the Corruptor in the second he takes to ponder whether losing me is worth it. Apparently, letting me go and running away would have been an amazing idea for his survival. Too bad he won't get a second chance at it. The white Hunter furiously stomps the Corruptor into the ground and bites his head off. The dead creature's flesh boils and melts, draining into the thirsty ground. Few moment later there is no trace that there ever was a Corruptor, or a fight at all. Only the white Hunter remains.

Who walks cautiously to me.

Look on the positive side, girl! The plan of surviving one Hunter's breeding attempt is back on the table. Too bad there's no way I can get to Ponyville before bleeding out on only three legs.

Head low like a cat approaching a vacuum cleaner, he sniffs my hind hooves, and keeps going until he reaches my wrecked front leg.

Heh, he doesn't look half bad. A bit bigger than an earthpony stallion, smells like freshly fallen snow and wet fur. I press my muzzle against his neck and take a deep whiff. Yep, definitely cleaner than the wandering Hunters.

He recoils when I do that, leaning his head back, ears drooping, and eyes wide. Black sclera with beautiful white orbs of blue undertone watching me.

I must be getting light-headed. Heh, at least I got to go without turning into a twisted image of myself. We never got to know whether the ponies who turned into Corrupted actually keep a little of themselves inside, desperately trying to escape the prison of their body's instincts, but at least I won't become THAT.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I scream. My hurt leg feels like being on fire and melting in acid at the same time.

I scream and scream until I cough blood, but it does not stop. I thrash on the grass, but the freedom of a spasming body is taken from me as well as the Hunter's hoof pushes me down. In the end I just wheeze and pray to Twilight to make everything stop.

It does, and my eyes roll back from wherever they ran away to escape reality.

I can feel my leg again. It's as if pins were being repeatedly stabbed in it, but I can feel it, and move it. I'm not an anatomy expert, but that should not be possible without blood and with most muscles torn off.

The leg disagrees with my assessment, and moves in front of my face. It's completely black and covered in matted, oily fur from the knee down, but there are no tears and no flapping flesh.

One thing is certain - I am corrupted. To what extent, I have no clue. So, since the Hunter seems to be waiting for something let's start with the important things.

My name is Nightshade and I _need to be filled with seed._

What?

I shake my head.

My name is Nightshade, and I serve princess Twilight Sparkle in the Hex Guard. I was sent on a mission to _find the nearest stallion and spread!_

No no no. I can handle this.

My name is Nightshade. I am a strong soldier. _I can find a Breeder, transform further, and dominate my own hive, become a Queen, and spread!_

No!

My head hurts. I can't focus. I have to get away, get back home to Ponyville _and prostrate myself before my Queen, submit to her will, and transform the lesser ones_.

I- we-

No, I am me, not us.

 _One mind, one will, one desire, one purpose._

 _Spread, breed, feed, serve._

 _Spread, breed, feed, serve._

 _Spread, breed, feed, serve._

 _Spread, breed, feed, serve._

 _Spread, breed-_

Complete silence.

How long did it take for me to realize there is a "me" again?

The pressure of voices all around me is gone. There is just me again. I am only one body, not many. I am complete just like this. I don't need seed flowing through me to feel right. I might WANT it, but that's because I'm a particularly kinky pegasus, not a tentacled monstrosity.

Aaaah, it's good to be back. Now, what the hay happen-

Something is touching my nose. Engaging optics, right noooow!

The white Hunter's nose is touching mine and I stare into the glacier-bright eyes.

"Umm..." I say. Smart and inquisitive, that's what I'm all about!

He twitches back. My head explodes once again.

The voices are back, but not screaming. They're just whispering on the edge of hearing. Is this what the partially corrupted have to deal with every day? Is this why they sometimes look like they are daydreaming despite other ponies talking to them?

I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.

Headache goes away.

Yep, the Hunter is touching my nose again.

An empty forest, its owner blocking the influence of other Corrupted. One who is cautious around ponies instead of being hostile.

Is the poor thing lonely? An ex-pony who retained some of his equinity despite being lost?

He leans away as I pat his head, and the voices return. Third time's the charm, though, and I successfully fight the presence inside me off.

Feeling this pressure all the time, fighting day after day to stay barely sane... is it worth it? Wouldn't it be better to just give in to lust?

Easier, definitely.

I hate Ponyville. I hate living underground. I hate eating the damn mushrooms all the time. I hate the artificial light. I hate that I can't use my wings. I hate this life!

I HATE LUNAR WATCH!

No, I'm not giving up. I will return to the enclave and I will make sure the bastard gets disciplined. Then... only then I just might give in to the corruption, grow some tentacles, and rip his anus so wide we'll have a new airship docking bay.

My angry hissing makes the white Hunter back off, growling like a cat being given a bath against its will but grudgingly accepting the necessity.

"Mrmmrmmrrmrmrm..."

Well, at least he's not stopping me from looking for my lost saddlebag. Too bad it got trashed when the Corruptor smashed me into a tree after tree.

"Most of the glassware is broken, the firebombs had NOT blown me to bits, which is gooood," I keep mumbling to myself while the Hunter sniffs the camping supplies soaked in chemicals I'm rummaging through.

"Mrmrmrmrm!" he sneezes as I uncork a vial with some of the more acrid contents and splash it on my corrupted leg. I barely feel the desinfectant.

My eyes water again as I recount the broken crumbs of hay biscuits in the bag which had not been ruined by the acids and other concoctions. Despite my stomach laying down some heavy resistance, I stand up, put the saddlebag back on, and take a deep breath.

"Okay, I'm a day away from Ponyville. This part of the forest isn't too dangerous, and I'm in a pretty good shape."

The last thing is a blatant lie. While I still have my leg, I'm bruised beyond any healthy measure, exhausted from the physical and mental struggle, and I am starving.

"Mrmmmr?" the Hunter is looking at me, head tilted to the side.

"Yes, and I have you, thank you for correcting me," I say absent-mindedly. He can't understand anything I'm saying, but it feels good to have somethi- somepony to talk to- talk at.

"Well, Ponyville, here I come!"

"Mrmr!"

"Exactly."


	4. New Hope: Corruption

The sky grows dim, and the light gradually drains from the naturally gloomy surroundings of the forest. I've left the icy woods nearly half a day ago, and whether it's through my careful and sluggish pace or sheer luck I haven't even heard a single Corrupted.

On cue, a branch behind me crunches.

Aside from Chilly, of course.

I called the white Hunter who saved me from a lifetime of joy, ecstasy, and endless-

Chilly saved me from becoming a Corrupted, or a corpse, at the small and utterly insignificant price of becoming only partially a twisted abomination. Nothing to worry about.

Se yeah, Chilly, the bluish-white Corrupted. I thought the name was funny, describing a creature who lives in an icy forest, makes the nature around him become covered with rime as he passes, and who has been following me since the attack.

Why? No clue. It might just be a trick to find one of the secret entrances leading to Ponyville enclave, but I don't think that is the case. Also, for some weird reason I don't like starving to death up here on the wild surface, so I don't really care enough to try to lose him.

Now, if I get back safely then I have several observations to make about the Corrupted which might help us avoid them. I'm getting the feeling that Corrupted are much less equine than we thought. My totally-not-a-wild-guess comes from Chilly disintegrating and "absorbing" the bodies of the killed Hunters. The second part, likely much more important, is that -it's hard to explain- they ARE NOT the bodies we see walking around, they are the LAND we walk on. From the way the ground itself absorbed the fallen Corruptor, and the way Chilly turns the area around him into his forest while he passes, I conclude we have been thinking about them the wrong way all this time. Killing few of the bodies walking around literally means nothing.

Perhaps princess Twilight only needs a new perspective on things. One I can bring after peering deeper into the corruption.

Or I might be just imagining things.

"All clear?" I whisper to the white stallion staying a pony length behind me all the time.

"Mrmm..."

I think I can sense changes in the tone of his grumbling and stance. He seems vigilant, but not nervous. At first he was on edge when we left his territory, but despite my trying to shoo him away he kept following me.

What do you mean I should have tried harder?! I'm not gonna push a guy who kept a large stretch of forest clear of enemies who make alicorns change their diapers!

As we pass through the forest, we come to an unexpected obstacle. There is a wide ravine blocking our path. The good thing is that I know Ponyville is near, the bad part is that I misjudged the path my unit and I took through the forest before, and ended up going too far west. Going around would waste two or three more hours, and I don't want to take that path at night.

I wasn't taken by the taint, and I sure as hay am not going to be stopped by a hole in the ground now.

Flying too high up would end really poorly for me, but a long jump aided a little by my wings can't hurt, right?

I steady myself, run towards the edge, jump, spread my wings, fly.

The hidden flytrap wines from across the ravine snap around me in an instant, and I get pulled into a web of sticky petals, branches, and tendrils.

"Crap!" I hiss.

On a brighter note, I got to the other side quickly...

I look pleadingly at Chilly running along the other edge of the rift, but I don't dare call out to him. He can't fly to get here, and me yelling would only serve to either scare him away or lure others to me. After a minute of confused walking around, he disappears into the dark wall of trees.

Well, he helped me get this far. I think I used up all the luck for my next two reincarnations already, and asking for more would only lead to divine retribution.

Sooo... I'm hanging spread-eagle a pony height above ground, legs so tightly entangled in a green mess that I can't move an inch.

Can I reach the wines with my mouth? Noooope.

Can I somehow bend time and space to reach my saddlebag and pull out any kind of acid strong enough to melt the wines? Only with a rubber neck.

Can I make the whole flytrap disappear with the power of friendship and my mind? Not a unicorn.

Can I-

Stop making up dumb ideas? Apparently not.

All I can do is breathe out in defeat. So this is how the flytraps work up close. This one is tiny, only a pony-sized web of green tendrils. Honestly, I would love to see one of the huge ones which can take down an airship. Well, there has been no airship travel in my lifetime, but my mom told me that her mom who died during the times when the threat was still unknown told her stories about giant flying ships lugging around whole loads of timber and ores. Cool as heck, I say!

Something smells sweet.

"Hmm?" I mumble.

A bulb above my head opened and is now emitting a fairly pleasant aroma. No our guidebooks ever mentioned anything of this sort happening. Can I smell it because of my corruption?

When I inhale my whole body feels as if there were small bolts of lightning running through it. All my nerves light up with pleasure, and I start dripping from my nethers with no restraint.

The scent is there to lure nearby Corrupted to the trapped victim.

With nothing to do other than hang there, I let my mind wander.

As much as I dislike living in the enclave, it wasn't always like that. When I was a little filly I got spoiled beyond belief by my parents. You know, one of the few remaining pegasi and such. They would always share their rations of sweets with me and tell me stories from the outside. Ponies aren't allowed on the surface before the age of sixteen, and the teachers tell horror stories about how we lost control over the land to scare them from trying. My mom, a pegasus, is a geologist working with the tunnel razing crews and miners. Dad, an earthpony, was a Hex Guard like I am. He passed away after a Corrupted attack on the surface part of the enclave. I still remember how I used to fall asleep on his back during the big Hearth's Warming gathering each year, our weird habit of drinking hot chocolate from one cup with sippy straws, how he growled and chewed my leg...

A brief moment of contemplation whether I mistook my father for a dog I never had, and I open my eyes.

"Chilly!" I whisper, smiling wide at the Corrupted ripping away the wines binding me, "Wait, how long was I out?"

It's still not completely dark, which means he got here in at most an hour. Twilight almighty!

Several minutes later, I'm back on the corrupted mushy ground and hug the white creature who grumbles and struggles for a moment, but stops and nuzzles me in the end.

I clutch my cramping stomach. As much as I want to get out of here, my legs are shaking and I can barely stand. Time to grab what little food I have left to alleviate the pain.

Chilly stares at my saddlebag with hostility, probably still not used to the smell of drying chemicals. He thaws a little when I start chewing on some broken biscuits and hold a hoof with some crumbs up to his nose. Giving them an exploratory lick, he spits everything out.

"Hey! Now they're all soggy," I complain, knowing I will eat them anyway. After sucking a Corruptor's tongue like a lollipop, most of my inhibitions towards disgusting stuff are dead and gone.

"Mrlmrm!" he sniffs the air. Is something coming? He doesn't seem to be getting ready to fight, just looking for something.

After several deep inhales, Chilly runs off while I finish the last of my food off. He comes back soon, carrying two black berries the size of plums in his mouth, and lays them in front of me.

They don't smell downright repulsive. Is this what Corrupted eat? I haven't seen any of these around, which could mean that only a small amount is enough to sustain one. Perhaps it won't poison me? Alright, Chilly seems smart enough to understand I'm not a Corrupted, and he still brought this.

Hmm... juicy, and tastes like sweet wine. Pretty goo-

Spasms wreck my body from the stomach up. My throat bulges with something stuck inside. I need to throw up! The thing definitely wasn't meant to be eaten by ponies.

"Blueeeeh!" it finally comes out.

I can't close my mouth.

"Whah ve ey?" I squint down my muzzle. Three long black tentacles are hanging out of it, "Blrblblb!"

Remember the sippy straw!

The things slip back inside me. Thankfully, I'm not choking anymore. Running my hooves up and down my windpipe, I notice my neck being a bit thicker than before. Nothing disfiguring, though.

"Can I talk? Cool, I can!" I stick my real tongue out. So they have the tentacles AND a normal tongue. The things seemed pretty tough, perhaps they are grabbing appendages. Well, there's going to be enough time to test them out later.

Warmth rushes through each muscle of my body. They become more toned and pronounced, and I realize the ground is slightly further away than before. I'm taller. It might be an excellent idea to find a mirror before returning to Ponyville just to see if I still look like a pony. I mean, I like the longer and more slender legs, I definitely like the wider hips and...

What did just brush the inner thigh of my hind leg? I crane my head to see.

"Ohhhh dear..."

Two large and dripping black teats are hanging where little and completely normal nipples used to be. I still don't look like a cow or a female Breeder, but the apple-sized bulges are creeping me out, I must admit. I rub my hind legs against them experimentally.

They feel so goooooooood!

I need to try them out. Closing my eyes, I spread my mind around the area. I can sense three Hunters, a Protector, and two Breeders, a male and a female one. They will serve me well. The female's submissive mind offers no resistance when I take over.

 _Each nerve lighting up as I get penetrated deeper than my body should allow, ready to accept the seed of the beast thrusting inside me. The other Breeder wrecking me pants and stares blankly nowhere as he just pumps away. Once he is done we can spread and the cycle will continue._

Ho ho ho! But a mare is not what I'm looking for. I switch to the next mind nearby.

 _I pound away at the mare under me, shivers running down my spine and gathering in my loins, ready to breed her. I have to spread._

The other guy is busy, apparently. Hmm... I want to try it for myself. A nearby Hunter's individuality dissipates as I command him to come to me.

Something is growling nearby. I ignore it. What could touch me here with all this power pulsing through my veins? My subjects will come if I call anyway, and I can't sense any Corrupted belonging to other Queen.

 _"On the ground!"_ I command the Hunter I called. He is a fine specimen, lean, agile, fertile, and well-developed. He is ready to enter me already. Not that he has a choice, I control and own him. I could let him mount me, but that is unworthy of such a lowly servant who is here only for my amusement. Instead, I make him lie down on his back, and straddle him.

Ponies, duties, worries and concerns evaporate the second I impale myself on him.

 _"HAH HAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"_ I can't stop the pure and unbridled joy running through me.

 _Spread!_

 _Spread!_

 _Spread!_

 _Spread!_

 _Spread!_

 _Gain power and spread! Cover the world!_

I am going to need more power, so I assimilate the Hunter, melting his body into the natural biomass, absorbing him through my hooves, and partially through the orifice he was enjoying a moment ago.

I want MORE!

The angry growling returns me back to reality for a second.

 _The white Hunter will be an excellent source of power._

 _"Feed your Queen!"_ I jump at him, shocked for a second when my direction is reversed along with a crushing blow to my chest.

He will serve.

As I get back on my legs, he turns to run away, giving me a perfect opportunity to tackle him to the ground. I need something to help me hold him down, though. Long spider legs sprout from my back and dig deep into the mud nearby. To stop him from moving completely, I let my hooves melt and glue his torso to our makeshift bed of leaves. Fool, thinking he could escape his Queen. Too bad I can't just get inside his head and make him do my bidding. Well, this body will shift according to my wish, and that wish is getting the seed of someone so powerful.

A long fleshy tube pushes out of my nethers, finds his sheath, and latches onto it.

My drool splatters all over his face. Soon he will be mine.

 _"Struggle more,_ **Chilly** _, I like the lively ones!_ " I hiss, spreading my saliva all over his muzzle with my new wriggling tongues.

He stops struggling when he hears the name, and his eyes wide with horror focus at me. The blue orbs offer me a reflection of myself. A twisted and ferocious grimace cackling madly at the sight of her- its prey.

It hits me harder than a sledgehammer.

"I'm gonna be siiick..." I groan.

I try not to think about all the unnatural appendages currently sticking out of me. My head isn't made to handle those, so as I push myself off of Chilly the spider legs slip out of the ground and the ovipositor or whatever the thing sticking out of my ass is limply drags through the black grass.

Chilly walks over to me, razor-sharp talons coming out of his hooves.

"I'msorry..."

"Grrrrrr!"

Right now I don't wish for endless ecstasy, power, seeing my friends at the enclave again, or even watching Lunar get hanged by his balls on the highest branch of the crystal castle. I wish for only one thing - not being the monster I turned into anymore. Warmth and little spikes of pleasure pass through me as Chilly steps on my chest and raises his hoof to cut my head off. The extra legs are gone, and my hindquarters host only orifices again. Thank Twilight!

"I'm sorry," I sniffle, tears welling in me at the sight of my impending doom. I was so close to getting to Ponyville, but maybe it's better that I won't. I took control of Corrupted so easily, who knows what I could have done from inside of the enclave, "Let me... at least let me thank you for making me stave it off long enough to get this far."

I close my eyes and push myself up a little to nuzzle him.

"GRRRRWRR!"

Don't stop! At times like this, fear loses all its meaning.

"Grrrrr..."

Finally, I bury my muzzle into the fur on his neck, spreading snot and tears everywhere.

Wait! One important message!

What is it, brain? You still have a head!

I open my eyes so cautiously as if the movement of my eyelids could make it fall off.

Chilly is watching me, quiet growling coming from him, but not making any moves to decapitate me. As I press my hooves against him, he takes a step away and lets me stand up. An idea comes to mind. I was planning to take the second corrupted berry to the enclave for research, but now it's all smooshed inside my bag.

Perhaps he'll still take it. I know for sure I'm not touching the damn thing again.

I toss the berry on the ground near him. He carefully sniffs it.

"I don't know if you're hungry or what, but you gave-"

Aaand he just munched it along with some grass... and dirt.

"Wow, were you THAT hungry?" I raise an eyebrow.

With utmost caution, I recall how my senses felt when I was "out of it". The berries give off a distinct scent, but I can't smell anything of that sort nearby. Are they starving as well? That can't be right. What if it is, though?

We were wrong in so many things about Corrupted. Of course, we were right about a lot of the bad stuff concerning them as well.

I have to talk to princess Twilight. She needs to know what being a Corrupted feels like. Perhaps, under careful observation, I could tap into the minds of the Ponyville hive and, I don't know, tell them to go away for a while or something.

Well, I need HIM to do that, otherwise I'll go all Chrysalis-mode again. Ehm, everypony knows those stories about attempted world domination. Good thing ponies and changelings live together these days.

"Will you help me again? You'll get to meet other ponies if you do that," I smile at Chilly who is observing me quietly.

He nods.

"You understand me?"

Nothing.

"Hmmm, it's not words. You can't talk. And I can't get inside your head like I could with the others. So what is it?"

I focus on the image of the two of us entering a tunnel leading to Ponyville.

"Are you coming?"

"Mrmmmr," another nod.

As we trot through the forest again, I keep humming to myself while trying to work out our communication. Unfortunately, I don't come to any sort of definite answer. The only thing that makes sense is that he can see a little of what I'm thinking about due to me being corrupted. That means there IS a link between us, but why couldn't I get inside him before? Can he close not only his connection to the rest of the Corrupted, but that of others as well?

No idea. Still, he is following me, and we are at the hidden entrance already. I pull up the trap door leading into the tunnels and beckon Chilly to come as well. This can go so horribly wrong, but it's only up to me not to make it so.

The second door stopping our progress is a slab of steel with a tiny slit opening from the inside. I knock.

"Password!" comes from the open slit.

"Three three seven nine, pinecones," I answer.

"That is an old password which got changed after a member of a scout party got corrupted. Who are you?"

"My name is Nightshade, I am a Hex Guard soldier, and I need to talk to princess Twilight. I'm pretty sure I am the lost scout you were talking about. I'm hungry, exhausted, and really pissed off at the guy who ordered the squad to desert me. Can you at least send for somepony I can talk to? Lunar Watch, my commander, should know me really well."

"Look, no password, no entry. We don't know what the Corrupted can do, but they can change shape and we aren't letting anypony who doesn't know the code inside."

"No," I growl, "you don't know, do you? Then I will show you!"

I turn my tail into a tendril which I wrap around Chilly's neck, and mumble:

"I need to stay sane for this one. Watch my back one more time, Chilly."

Pressing both my front hooves against the metal door, I dig deep into the power inside me. The Corrupted are the land, and Ponyville is a home to many others. My hooves fuse with the steel which gradually turns into black goo and drips on the chiseled stones of the tunnel floor. After mere seconds. all that remains is a thin, slick membrane which a tear through just to see three trembling ponies.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, the closest lunch lady, and commander Lunar Watch of the Nightguard! In that exact order!"


	5. New Hope: Return home

The large guard room in the access tunnels to Ponyville fills with ten more soldiers and a white unicorn mare staying on the other side, as far away from me and Chilly as the situation allows.

"Come oooon!" I roll my eyes, "I'm just trying to get home. Why do you insist on making it so difficult?"

"It's simple. You are a Corrupted. No matter what your little story is, you are not getting inside."

"I'm normal! Mostly..."

"Look, the only reason you're not dead yet is that we are leaving that decision to you. If there is any equinity left in you, you will walk away, stay on the surface, and never be a threat to any pony again. Surely you can understand a noble sacrifice like that, especially if you really WERE a member of the Hex Guard like you claim."

"Sacrifice?" I grit my pointy teeth desiring nothing more than ripping the unicorn's leg off and beating her to death with it, "I have a family here, well, mom! I have friends here!"

"I am suuuuure all of them will be happy to see a Corrupted pretending to be somepony they know. I will repeat it only once - leave, and 'your'," the way her hooves make quotes in the air makes me boil even more, "family will recieve a commendation of 'your' bravery without having to see their 'daughter,'" kill, kill, kill, "tainted."

"You are not stopping me, you pompous twit!" I take a step forward, making all guards around clutch their weapons and clench their buttholes, "After this, I might even PREFER living out there rather than being cooped up down here with the likes of you! Now shove your fancy horn up your bony ass and let me see the mare who raised me into the nice and polite mare I am today!"

"Soldiers, purge the enclave from this Corrupted filth!" she orders.

"Stay your weapons!" a voice filled with authority comes from the hallway leading down to Ponyville.

Two tall unicorns wearing the dark purple armor of the Hex Guard push themselves into the already full room.

I know those guys. Well, I've seen them before, not actually talked to them. Mana Burn and Knowledge, the Hex Guard elite, and princess Twilight Sparkle's bodyguards -and consorts, according to some rumors. I can see why, those guys are huge for unicorns!- which means the voice commanding absolute obedience behind them is a lavender alicorn even taller than both of the soldiers or anypony else in the room.

"Your Highness-" the rude unicorn mare starts, but Twilight just raises a hoof, interrupting her.

"Go secure the lower part of the tunnel. We have some 'repairs' to make to this entrance."

"Sorry, your Highness," I mumble and lower my head, "I'm hungry, scared, tired, and I really, really want to see my mom."

Everypony rushes off, leaving only Twilight, her bodyguards, me, and Chilly in the guard room.

"Do you truly wish her to see you, Nightshade? There is little left from the mare you were before," she asks calmly.

"Before? You know me? I'm just a grunt," I blink.

"I know all my little ponies," Twilight smiles wearily, "After all, there is so few of us left. I pay close attention to everypony here in Ponyville. I would be a pretty awful leader if I only cared about what I myself think. So let me ask again, do you really want your mother to see you like this?"

"Of course! Why would you ask? Like what?"

Her horn shimmers, and I take a good look at myself in the conjured reflective surface.

The dark grey pegasus with silver mane and tail who left Ponyville two days ago is no more. What looks at me from the mirror is a taller, slimmer and more muscular creature of inky black coat, dusty grey mane, and a thick slick whip instead of a a fluffy light tail. The eyes staring at me in utter horror are completely black, with bestial yellow pupils being the only major difference in color.

Hey, at least my tears feel the same.

"Damn it," I whisper, "Damn it! Damn it!"

So it wasn't the guards' fault. My head was just trying to make sense of my new body and kept telling me I was mostly fine.

"The gate guards said you asked specifically for me, Nightshade. Why?"

I slump on the cold floor. Chilly coming closer and nuzzling my neck helps stave off the cold depression taking me, but not much.

"I wanted to report the result of the forest expedition. I wanted you to know what I learned about being partially... about being a Corrupted. I wanted to hug my moooooooooom!" I break down in tears.

The touch of soft feathers wrapping around me is something I've felt only at home. The alicorn herself sat down next to me, and is waiting for me to gather myself.

She needs to know. Whatever happens next, she needs to know the threat or corruption is different from what we thought.

"So?" she gives me a reassuring smile when I stop sobbing and wipe my eyes.

"You're not afraid of horn rot?" I push her away, but she doesn't budge.

"Terrified," she said in complete seriousness, "but my research indicates that horn rot is not an infection, but an ability Corrupted use to fight against magic users."

"Well, I am-"

"Corrupted cannot talk."

"I-"

I stop.

"Mrmmrmr!" Chilly agrees with Twilight.

"Speaking of which," she looks at him, "Who is your strangely peaceful companion?"

"I call him Chilly. I think he used to be a pony, likely a soldier, and he still keeps other ponies from harm. He was the reason the part of the forest we were sent to was empty..."

Recounting everything that happened helps not think about the future. I hesitate before telling her how I went crazy, but she gives me time, and doesn't say much when I finally decide to do so. When I'm done, she helps me get up, and dusts herself off.

"...one last thing - without Chilly, I think the potential farmland in the forest will be useless, as others will move into the empty territory."

"You have given me a lot to think about. If you want you can come with us inside. For now, you will be under observation and I will perform some tests on you and," she gives my white friend and exploratory look, "Chilly."

"Mmrmm..."

"Does he understand what I am saying?" she says, clearly surprised.

"I doubt that. He can understand simple things I say and think because we are both Corrupted. He just learns fast, and knows that I want something whenever I talk to him."

"I see," the corners of Twilight's mouth twist up a little, "Mana Burn, accompany Chilly to the holding cell on the twenty-seventh floor. It's close enough to my personal laboratory. Knowledge, prepare a room for miss Nightshade nearby and set up a guard schedule and security rules."

"Umm, why?" I wonder aloud.

Twilight's smile returns to her usual sleepless expression.

"I believe you don't want to be a threat. However, that doesn't mean you are not. These are just precautions in case I'm wrong."

Unfortunately, I have to agree with her.

I spent the next two days 'assisting' the princess with her experiments. She took samples of my blood, spit, waste, and other bodily fluids I wasn't even aware of having. When she insisted on me 'giving' her my, ehm, juices, offering either the assistance of one of her bodyguards or herself, I had to go to the bathroom to stop myself from spontaneously combusting.

A sharp stab of pain makes me clutch my head in the middle of watching princess Twilight melting some of my shaved coat in acid.

 _Confusion, hunger, loneliness, walls closing around me._

"What's wrong?" Twilight stands up.

"I... I don't know," I groan, standing up on wobbly legs, "It's coming from that way."

She props me up as I limp forward, following the soft but insistent tugging inside my head. We stop in front of Chilly's holding cell. With all the testing and hustle, I completely forgot about him.

"Open the door."

She opens a metal panel next to the door, and watches the blinking lights inside.

"Something strange is going on inside. We should obs-"

"Open the door, or I am opening it permanently!" I growl, ignoring the fact that I'm threatening an alicorn. Come to think of it, the more I say it, the more convincing I sound.

Twilight pushes more buttons, and the door slide open.

Chilly is slowly walking in a circle in the middle of the room, frozen grass sprouting and melting in his hoofsteps.

"Chilly?" I come closer.

He just keeps walking, head hung low and ears drooped, not hearing me. My attempt at talking to him in my head falls on its ass. I can't sense him anymore. Touching him does nothing either.

He is alone again.

"I need to go outside!" I say firmly after watching the weakening Corrupted for a moment.

"What for?"

"I need to find something. I think he's hungry, but that would have been fine on the surface where he had his land. This sterile place doesn't do him good. That might explain why the Corrupted never hunted us underground. I gotta go out and get some of the berries."

"That's dangerous."

 _My subject will not suffer due to my negligence._

 _"I am dangerous!"_ my tone turns aggressive, _"Stay with him! Open the door and let him roam through the tunnels. I will find you when I get back, just give me two hours. If I don't... have somepony escort him back to his forest. With him staying there you will have a protected area for farming."_

Yes, I am ordering an alicorn around. And yes, she will obey unless she wants to lose her horn. The Hunter who saved me will live through the day, or I won't.

Rushing through Ponyville enclave followed by Mana Burn who saves the gate guards from becoming my food, I leave him in the guard station in the tunnels and breathe in the fresh surface air. Strange, it feels much less threatening up here now. As if I belong here.

Letting my mind roam, I use the sharp senses of Hunters nearby to catch a scent of the berries. There are some around, but they are high up in the trees where Corrupted fail to reach. Looks like I have to go there personally. Growing claws for climbing up, I am assaulted by irresistible vertigo and fall from several pony heights down on the ground. Thank Twilight for its mushiness.

Alright, it's not that they don't know how to fly, they literally can't. Strangely, the uselessness of my wings doesn't bother me anymore.

 _A tree... a TREE is my obstacle now?!_

I call the nearest Protector, and order the bulky earthpony-shaped Corrupted of twice my height and three times my width to push. With the help of my back tentacles we tear the tall tree down, and I gather the remaining berries.

Then it dawns on me that there is a Protector and a Hunter standing behind me, and I am not crapping myself.

"Good job, guys!" I throw some of the harvested berries to them, and they hungrily devour them, _"Now piss off, I'm not taking you home with me."_

To my utter astonishment, and the feeling of correctness of the situation deeper inside me, they leave.

Happy to see Twilight walking Chilly through the corridors near her lab, I shove a berry into his mouth. His eyes light up and he shakes his head. A little stab of jealousy hits me as he licks Twilight's face, making the alicorn jump far away with the help of her wings in complete shock.

"Hey, I brought you these," I grumble.

He licks me.

"That's better!" I pat him.

The corridor gets colder, and the walls freeze over.

"What's going on?" Twilight asks, coming back and blushing.

"Ooops," I giggle and scratch my head, "Let's get him back to the holding cell. I think Chilly needs a room fo his own."

To our surprise, he leads the way, and the metal door turns to ice and melts at his touch. As he sits down in the middle of the room, the stone floor turns to corrupted mush, and fragile, pale bushes cover it. Wines drop down from the ceiling, and I spot several more small berries ready to grow on a tree taking a large chunk of the back of the room.

Twilight watches the transformation with mouth open so wide a string of her saliva doesn't need to go far to touch the floor, well, ground.

"Celestia's rainbow mane!" she says when the first light green leaves fall down from the tree, "Whhuh?"

"I told you, they are the land we walk on and live under. They aren't invaders, and we aren't prey, they are..."

Sadly, I don't have the right words to finish the sentence, so I just shake my head.

"Nevermind."

"MORE TESTS!" Twilight snaps out the paralyzed stupor.

"Later, your Highness," I smile to myself. There is one last thing left undone. Actually, two things, but this one is more important, "I want to visit my mom now."

"Mana Burn will escort you. Speaking of which, I sent Knowledge to restore your status as a Hex Guard. He's going to be your partner for quite some time, not just to monitor you, but also to make sure ponies don't get the wrong idea."

"You're not coming with me?" I gulp. My new "appearance" would bear a lot less negative connotation if the princess came along.

"Don't worry too much," she looked me straight in the eyes, "A mother will know."

Biting my lip, I hope beyond any reasonable measure that she is right.

Not too much later, after I had a shower and wishing I had a drink of something strong to steady my nerves, I knock on the door of the suite I grew up in.

"Coming!"

Few days ago, I was screaming the same thing into the air of the for-

A quick facepunch puts my unruly thoughts back in line.

"What can I do-" she takes a step away from the door when she sees me.

Please, don't yell for the guards!

Please, don't yell for the guards!

Please, don't yell for the guards!

I can't make a sound.

"Welcome home, honey," she smiles, "You're all grown up now. My my, does the time fly."

I stare, gradually breaking into giggles.

"You saw me not even a week ago, mom," I hug the mare. All my worries dissipate when she hugs back.

Mana Burn closes the door behind us, staying on watch outside.

"How did you know?" I have to ask. I could barely recognize myself, "Secret mom superpower?"

"Not really," she goes to the kitchen and returns with two cups of tea, "Princess Twilight told me everything yesterday. I wanted to see you, but she said you needed time to deal with it yourself. I'm glad it didn't take long."

"So you're not worried by this?" I run a hoof through my coat.

"Pfff," she waves her hoof, "You looked a lot worse when you slipped out of me. Even the doctors thought I slept with a swamp monster. I have the pictures somewhere. Call the guard hunk inside, I think he'd like to see them."

"MOOOOOOM!" I whine loud enough for most of Ponyville to hear.

"Come on, don't be shy!"

I'm home.

And nothing has changed.


	6. New Hope: Loss

"As much as I sympathize with you, what Lunar Watch did was the correct choice," princess Twilight shakes her head, "I know it hurts, but both his report and your recount of the situation are the same in their core. We can't afford to lose anypony, and if we are in a situation when it is unavoidable, we are to keep the losses at minimum. Honestly, with how the rules are he should get a commendation for 'losing' only one pony when faced with six Corrupted."

I grit my teeth. Deep down I know what he did was right, what bothers me is WHY he did it.

"Your Highness, Lunar Watch is a racist bastard who only used the protocol to cover being a coward on top."

"I disagree," Twilight says firmly, looking straight at me, "ANYPONY would be terrified in that situation, and he chose the right course of action. The unit escaped a pursuit by a Hunter and a Corruptor, and returned to Ponyville."

"Is he actually getting a damn MEDAL for leaving me out there to rot?!"

Twilight raises a hoof.

"HOWEVER, his report about the area his unit was sent to explore was grossly incorrect, rushed and imprecise."

"Yeah, just watch him blame me for, I don't know, not giving him enough information or something equally false. I brought you what was left from my on-site testing."

"I know," she gives me a weak smile, "Look, I can't bend the rules and act on a hindsight. The best I can do is reassign you to somepony else."

"Yeah," I mumble, looking at the glistening black coat of my legs, "I'm sure they'll be ecstatic..."

"I don't know, Mana Burn didn't seem to have any issues with you."

"Huh?"

"At the moment, you have the power to control the Corrupted, at least temporarily, and I want you to use it. I need to do more tests to ascertain whether you and Chilly are just anomalies, or whether there is a way to reach out to other Corrupted, perhaps communicate with them. We have to find out how they can so easily change their physical attributes, how they can be reborn just few hours after being killed by us, and how the spread of corruption onto ponies works. Right now, you might be the most important pony in the world."

Blushing, I step my legs back and forth.

"I wouldn't even know where to start with all that."

"Well, that's where I come in. What we need to do first is carefully monitor the spread of corruption in a pony. Let's say we do it first on somepony who is mentally and physically strong."

"You want me to CORRUPT a pony? What about the 'there is too little of us to lose any' speech?"

"I want you to help me PREVENT the corruption of a pony. And no, I don't think you or Chilly doing it would give us satisfactory results. You show some characteristics of a Queen like the one leading the Ponyville hive. You can order others around, take control of their bodies, and break them down into their base mass. In short, I believe your influence would be too strong. We need a Corrupted who is just a grunt."

"So, if I get it right, you want me to bring a Corrupted here, into the heart of last remains of pony races, infest Mana Burn, one of your best soldiers, and make sure he doesn't go crazy and try to mate with anything he sees including chairs?"

"So crudely delivered - yes. There will be more later."

I sigh.

"I hope this decision won't lead to a complete disaster."

A crazy glint passes through Twilight's eyes.

"Welcome to what I think about every second of my life."

We part ways, and I come back to Chilly's little forest room. During the past week, this place and a chunk of hallway around transformed into a perfect replica of the fragile forest he lived in on the surface. Thankfully, there were no more incidents, althought I had to go outside several times to get more berries and other samples for experiments. I believe that this fragment of the unnatural nature will be self-sufficient and able to feed Chilly in some time. I "asked" him not to change any more of the area not to weird ponies out. Whether he understood or not, the spread stopped there despite him spending most of his time wandering through the vastly spread halls of Ponyville enclave. There have been exactly zero incidents of ponies being hostile to him, as after I fed him the last time he has "allowed" me to sense his presence and mood continuously. I must admit it's super weird having an open "link" to somepony inside my head, always sensing little bits of what they are doing, but it helped me know ponies respected princess Twilight's news about Chilly.

Well, to be completely honest, I believe it was more the case of them being too scared of him to do anything.

"Yo, up for a little trip on the surface?" I ask Chilly when he wakes up as soon as I enter his doorless room, my cheer surprising even myself.

"Mmrmmr!" he grumbles, mirroring my enthusiasm.

When we stand on the surface again, taking in huge lungfuls of fresh air, I ponder how different this place looks to my new eyes. It feels more like home than the underground tunnels, artificial lights, and the constant humming of pony voices in the distance. Granted, it's dimmer out here, and the "voices" in my head telling me to conquer some territory and gather forces are much closer, but I like it out here now.

Oh well, time to get to work.

Mana Burn said he would prefer a mare for the experiment, so I let my mind jump from Corrupted to Corrupted in the vicinity.

 _Several Breeders. We should avoid using those for now,_

Breeders are traps. They are physically weak, barely able to defend themselves even from a civillian, but that's not what they are supposed to do. The scent of a Breeder can make a pony lose all their inhibitions and give in to lust instantly.

Perhaps I should do it, just for fun? Probably not, though. I doubt Twilight would look at me kindly for transforming her bodyguard into a stallion humping machine.

 _There are few female Hunters around. Judging from their size, the shouldn't be too overdeveloped to make Twilight's little guard suffer from performance issues._

Should I get a female Protector just to see him try and mate with a mare twice his size? Screw it, we're doing it just for the hilarity value!

 _Three, four, seven Protectors nearby. I'm either able to spread further and faster when looking for Corrupted, or there is a ton of others around whom I wasn't able to sense before._

It's quite lively today.

I smile to myself. I don't even know why it makes me so happy that the surface is anything but a barren landscape, although filled with killers feasting on pony flesh. Certain several inches of pony flesh, to be exact, heh. I could go for a little "feast" myself, come to think of it.

Let's go with the Protector mare then.

Chill runs up my spine as I tap into her mind.

Oh heavens! Something sees me! Something is watching me, getting closer!

Chilly.

Chilly!

CHILLY!

The touch of soft fur and the warmth pressing against my back stops the icy feeling of shadowy claws wrapping around me.

What the fuuuuuu-?

I'm shaking all over.

I have no idea what really happened, only that my instincts told me that something drastically more powerful than I am wanted to find me.

Can't go back empty-hooved. Let's try to find a nice Huntress, preferrably one who won't have a dark, looming presence inside her head. I touch the next mind very carefully, aware of the shadow looking for me again. Not daring to take the Huntress over completely, I leave her with just an order to come to me.

Chilly growls at her as I lead her back into the enclave, but the mare obeys my explicit order to not do anything other than follow me.

The white unicorn bodyguard of princess Twilight is waiting for me in the laboratory we set up just for the "occasion".

"Okay, what should I do?" Mana Burn asks me meekly. Pretty cute for a high-class unicorn.

"How should I know," I grin, "I'm not a stallion."

He pouts. Even cuter.

"I mean is she going to bite me or something?" he comes closer to the Huntress watching him with curiosity. She is as tall as him, slim and obviously ready to pounce and restrain her prey. Just like all the wild Corrupted I've seen her colours are shades of black gleaming in the white light of the lab lights.

"Start whenever you are ready!" Twilight's voice comes from behind a glass panel of the observation room.

"Let me start you off, Mana," I nuzzle the unicorn and slip my mouth tentacle between his teeth. He blushes, and I whisper in his ear, "Don't think of her as a monster, and it'll happen naturally. She wants it much more than you do."

Tapping more directly into the mind of the Huntress, I have to restrict her instinct to jump Mana Burn here and now, keeping her in the more submissive role. As soon as the stallion finally puts his muzzle to good use, waves of mirrored pleasure wash over me.

Corruption spreads quickly. Moments of Mana Burn eating the Huntress out later, I can sense a new mind joining the pool of the infested I can reach out to. For the moment, I just observe his slow fall into rutting insanity.

Oh if only Twilight understood how little she truly knows about her closest subjects. With Mana Burn's mind spread before me, I watch pleasure creep through him, tainting his strongest and most dutiful thoughts with it. It does not take long for him to see the Huntress just as a willing mare, and when he admits her as "normal", I see the corruption push against his submissive desires first.

The Corrupted are a tool MADE for something, that's why obedience comes first.

Failing being the submissive one, Mana Burn is tempted with power, dominance, herding, and being the indisputable alpha male. That one catches on, as expected of a stallion. No matter the upbringing, the core of both stallions and mares still hosts the desires of ancient times where intelligence was only starting to take root.

As he ruts the Huntress harder, strings of his drool touch her back, and his pristine coat fills with veins of black.

"Mana Burn, stop and take a break," Twilight orders.

 _Not gonna work. He is more mine than yours now._

With a careful mental touch, I put the memory of him being admitted to the Hex Guard and swearing his loyalty to Twilight forward.

He shakes his head and stops the mechanical pistoning in and out of the Huntress.

"Sorry, your Highness," he bows, "I... I-"

With my momentary lack of attention, the Huntress impales herself on his member still halfway inside, making him explode into her. His horn lights up, liquid magic dripping from it. I watch more and more of his self being consumed, trying to make notes of the pointless resistance he tries to muster. As the unfocused magic released by his mind-shattering orgasm lights up the room, the Huntress panics, revealing one instinct I have not seen yet. She splits part of her mind, and a thread of living corruption drains into Mana Burn's horn, dousing all the magic and making him drop on his -finely toned, I must say- rump, tongue out and eyes rolled back.

I can sense his head lighting up with pleasure as his horn slowly turns black and melts, dripping down his forehead. Horn rot, an ability where a Corrupted sacrifices a large portion of their strength to assault a unicorn with pleasure so overwhelming they literally orgasm all their magic through their horn.

 _Hmm, so this is how it works._

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Twilight barges inside the room, screaming at me.

Chilly, Mana Burn, and the Huntress surround her, growling. They won't move against her, not without my command. In a moment of clarity, I notice a strange similarity between Chilly and Mana Burn. Their minds feel almost identical.

Mana Burn is mine now. Protective, obedient. And excellent guard who will become a great Protector when I transform him completely.

"Your Highness, this is a result of your experiment. You have seen horn rot in action, the spread of corruption in one of your finest. I will tell you every little detail I've gathered, but your bodyguard is now one of my Corrupted."

"That wasn't supposed to happen! I thought you could prevent it," she says, begging more than anything else.

"I need to do this, your Highness. I need to find out what this means."

"What 'this' is it?"

"Chilly, sever his connection to the others."

When he touches Mana Burn, the ex-unicorn shakes his head.

"Wh-what happened?" he scowls and clutches his head, "Aargh! What is going on, my Queen?"

The expression on Twilight's face when he addresses me as the queen is barely contained fury. Veeeeery barely.

"What did you do?" Twilight hisses.

"I certainly wasn't expecting he could still talk," I raise an eyebrow, "Chilly, keep him locked out."

"No... no need," Mana Burn focuses, and my link to him weakens drastically. It still remains, though.

"You can do it too?!" I blurt out.

"I... think so..." he groans under the strain.

Several things click inside me.

"Your Highness, please stop looking like you want to send me to the moon. I think I know a little of what's going on."

"Mana Burn, are you okay?" Twilight ignores me.

"Please don't hurt my owner, princess. I will stand in your way if I have to, no matter how much it hurts me."

"Mana..." she looks about to cry.

"Your Higness," I try again. Twilight turns to me, defeated, "I think ponies who used to be devoted guards have a 'slot' -I don't know how to explain it without you being able to see their minds- for an owner. They can lock the influence of the others out and, if Chilly is any indication, they can do the same for somepony else."

"Chilly can't talk, though."

"Yes, I think he was alone for too long so he forgot. I have no clue if he can learn again, but I don't think so, or it would take too much time and effort. Decades, possibly. Chilly is incomparably more powerful than Mana Burn, though, which leads me to think he must be REALLY old, maybe from the early years of the corruption's spread. Let me see if I can get a glimpse of his 'real' master."

 _Don't freak out. Just show me._

I can't access the memory, the only feelings I get are:

"White... and... a rainbow?" I shake my head, "I don't think he wants to show me out of fear he would lose the preserved memory. He is already sort of accepting me in its place. Ummm... your Highness?"

Twilight is staring at me, mouth open and eyes wide.

"Uhhh, your Highness?" I try again.

"That can't be..." she whispers.

"Wha-"

I get interrupted by warning of screaming sirens and bells tolling through the enclave.

The Corrupted are attacking.


	7. New Hope - End: The black tide

The surface part of Ponyville enclave where we grow crops impossible to cultivate underground spans a circle about fifty pony lengths in radius with the crystal tree castle in its center. It's not much, but with magic-enhanced farming we can make sure all ponies have more to eat than mushrooms every day. The area is surrounded by a thick wall with several small entrances scattered on the circumference.

Soldiers are rushing around, forming ranks or taking positions on the turrets along the ramparts equipped with the remains of griffon projectile weaponry repurposed to be used by somepony without talons. The last of farmers taking care of the surface crops pass me, my "subjects", and Twilight as we run out of the underground entrance.

Knowledge trots over, unable to stop the look of horror at the sight of partially-transformed Mana Burn, and salutes.

"What's going on?" asks Twilight, "Red alert hasn't been called for years."

"Well, your Highness, it seems we made somepony out there really mad. Corrupted are massing just outside our firing range, organized and in ranks."

"Organized?"

For some reason, Twilight flashes me a look. Does she think this was some long con of mine to control Ponyville?

I try to touch the minds of several Corrupted outside, but I'm swatted away with far too much force to be just a warning.

"Somepony is controlling them," I nod, "I can't get inside their heads."

"Then the Ponyville Queen has finally decided to make her move. I wonder what forced her hoof."

I whistle innocently. Thankfully, nopony notices. So, the Ponyville hive is attacking as one, likely because I brought attention to us by snooping around the heads of the Corrupted around.

Well, it's not as if we can negotiate with them.

"Chilly, Mana Burn, you Huntress thingy as well, go down to the enclave and grab what little berries we managed to grow," I order, "Eat up and come kick some righteous flank."

My command is absolute to them, and they rush off.

"Didn't you say eating them almost made you lose it completely?" Twilight grabs me and makes me face her.

"Yes, but I can't cut myself off of the collective mind of the Corrupted. They can, and Chilly has been eating the berries forever. He won't fail."

"What about the wild Hunter mare?"

"If she becomes an issue, they will kill her. She doesn't have the power to resist them. Speaking of issues," I turn when a creaking noise from one of the small entrances pierces the air, "I think we have more pressing matters at hoof, your Highness."

The metal door gets punched inside along with bits of the masonry around. A gargantuan Protector rushes through, shrugging off bolts of magic and gunfire. With him serving as a riot shield, Corrupted flow from the shattered entrance.

Some get felled by firebombs, but each incendiary or acidic charge robs us of precious farming soil. When the Corrupted get too close for us to use explosives and corrosives safely, our soldiers engage in losing fight against the black tide. Twilight takes to the air, leaving deep, scorched scars of magic wherever her horn aims. Without any flytraps inside the walls, she can use the aerial advantage effectively. Unfortunately, even alicorn stamina and power can't prevail against enemies this tough.

Granted, the Corrupted are dying, flesh liquifying and leaving only puddles of black staining the ground, but more and more are coming.

I spot a mare grabbed by Hunter's talons and thrown to a Corruptor behind him. The wriggling mass of the non-pony absorbs the mare and locks around her like a tight bodysuit. Her wriggling stops in seconds. A strong Protector mare's mouth tentacles grasp a soldier fighting her, slam him on the ground, and then she presses her muzzle against his behind. His eyes roll back and his tongue lulls out, not resisting the mare in the slightest anymore.

 _Time to see how much I really changed._

 _PONYVILLE IS MINE!_

An impact inside my head makes me choke on my saliva. My vision is swimming, and I can barely move my legs.

 **No, it is mine! Did you really think you could touch my property and get away with it?**

Those are not words, just feelings of pure rage at my transgression, but my head is making me understand clearly.

 **I will make you the lowest of the low, you will be sucking off drones for food, and I will laugh while transforming the other of you lesser beings into Breeders. Then nothing will stop me!**

The last feeling makes me snap back into reality.

The attacking Queen is afraid. Not of us, not at all, but of something else. Something from the west.

I use the closing link between us, and assault her mind.

 _Corrupted, some looking similar to Chilly, wearing remains of plate armors. A mix of ponies, half-dragons, and even changelings, each one decorated by a golden relic here and there. Some have several strands of golden mane, some of the dragonponies' scales are of the same colour. Every single of the hundreds of Corrupted bears a golden symbol somewhere._

 **DISAPPEAR!**

Another mental blow strikes me, and the link breaks.

The fight changed into a giant orgy while I was occupied with the Queen. The defending ponies have no space where to form ranks and are being pushed with very little effort by the organized Corrupted. The captured and hurt ones are now being ruthlessly tained by Corrupted taking turns using them as enjoyment.

Twilight evaporates another chunk of the Corrupted force, and I feel the rage in the air again.

 **Alicorn, you will become a part of me!**

Several Corrupted turn into goo instantly, and from them a new one forms. A tall mare with a crown ornament on her head. Summoning tendrils out of the remaining puddle, she pulls Twilight struggling to stay in the air by furious flapping of wings down to herself, and licks her horn playfully.

 **You like this part of yourself, don't you? It will serve better as a part of me.**

"She doesn't understand you, you moron!" I can't help myself.

Another mental blow makes me kneel, throwing up on the ground underneath me.

Wheee! Drain bamage and percussion- concussion.

A blur passes my vision. Then another one, and another.

The Corrupted howl and scream.

I shake my head. Huh?

Ponies are fighting back and winning?

Three minds flash on my mental map.

Chilly jumps up the titanic Protector and buries his claws, teeth, tentacles, and many more growing appendages into his neck, heaves, and rips through the neck as thick as his torso.

A knight in full plate armor holding a greatsword wrapped in his tentacle tail cleaves through smaller Corrupted with ease, causing panic and making the Queen retreat from his assault.

"DON'T TOUCH MY QUEENS, TAINTED FILTH!" screams transformed Mana Burn, not relenting his assault and giving Twilight time to get up.

The yet-unnamed Huntress is by his side, dodging and weaving blows whenever she can and taking focus off him.

Awww, young love- lust- probably both.

I sense the panic in the Queen's head. Panic I can use.

 _"Chilly, cover me!"_ I push myself forward and run towards the enemy Queen.

Dodging another swing from Mana Burn, she can't get out of my way in time. Tackling her, I spawn tentacles out of my belly and pierce her body and the ground beneath.

I wonder how it would feel to consume a Queen.

Then I try to do so.

Protected by ponies, my three-Corrupted hive, and Twilight, I make the Queen's body melt, and suck it inside me through my hooves.

Some-

 _My Corrupted are still fighting the pon- lesser creatures._

I shake my head again. Chilly senses the pressure inside me, but I shoo him away. I have to do this on my own to prove my right to take control of the others.

 _Consume, adapt, spread._

 _Assimilate the lesser breeds, grow!_

 _Devour, gain resources, and-_

 _"STOP FIGHTING!"_ both my corrupted self and the little part still remaining a pony scream together.

The mental pressure of my command makes all Corrupted aside from Chilly and Mana Burn stumble back. The half-twisted ponies, both mares and stallions, previously mated with by Corrupted not on the front line crawl towards their masters, licking their legs and begging for being filled or having something to fill again. My head lights up with so many minds I can barely find my own, but here they all are, all of the Ponyville hive under my command. Some want ponies to play with, most are hungrier than we used to be in the enclave, and quite a lot simply do not want to be here. It is shocking how little of the Corrupted want to break the enclave's defenders.

The soldiers are enjoying a break in the unwinnable fight.

"Kill the monsters while they're weak!" a voice yells out, snowballing into an avalanche of screams and charging ponies.

Who said that?

I laugh like a complete maniac. Somepony up there must love me to allow me to survive my forest trial, return home, and bring Lunar Watch ordering his squad to kill my subjects straight to me. Pointing at the batpony, I grin, careful to show all my teeth.

"Chilly, kill!"

 _Just bring him to me, but make it painful._

"LEAVE MY SUBJECTS ALONE!" I scream after the white Hunter leaves my side. The ponies don't stop attacking the confused Corrupted, struggling between my command and their survival instincts.

When it doesn't help, I take all the breath I can and yell at the top of my lungs:

"They have been kinder to me than your bats and other idiotic cowards after my return, and you're just slaughtering them when they run? THEN THEY WILL NOT RUN!""

"Wait, no..." I hear a weak voice nearby. It's Twilight, realization that I'm not on her side anymore growing in her.

"You can stop this," I comment, not trying too hard to make her hear.

She does hear me, however. Before I can order the Corrupted to fight back again, Twilight's horn bursts out with blinding light, and all ponies stop moving.

All but one, the one dragged by his neck by Chilly towards me.

"You..." I growl at Lunar Watch thrown to my hooves.

"Grwrrrr!" Chilly joins me.

"Princess Twilight," I kick the batpony struggling to get up, "As the new Queen of the Ponyville hive, I would like to give you a chance to surrender."

"What?" the alicorn takes a step back, "Nightshade, you can't be serious! I'm not letting my ponies get hurt!"

"Twilight," I deliberately leave out her title, "I will not repeat this, so listen carefully. We will take all the partially corrupted ponies still on the battlefield, you will immediately cease all hostilities towards us, and you will not touch a single Corrupted from my hive unless provoked, from Drone to Protectors."

"Of course no-"

I raise my hoof.

"In return, my hive will leave the enclave alone. We will also allow you movement all around Ponyville town without fear of being attacked or captured and transformed. You will gain the entire city and the farmland around for the enclave."

"We could... return to the surface?"

"There would be other details to sort out regarding the land we need to exist and you need to grow real food, but this is the main gist of it."

"Is all that in your power?" Twilight whispers in disbelief.

"They are mine," I wave my hoof, encircling all the Corrupted standing around, "and they will obey my rules much more firmly than your ponies will obey yours."

"I wish to speak to the partially corrupted ponies, and let the ones who want to return to the enclave."

A quick survey of the minds nearby gives me a definite answer.

"There are none, not a single pony who is in the shape to think for themselves. Do you understand, Twilight? This is why you lose ponies day after day while we grow stronger. If it helps, I can solemnly promise there isn't a single pony who would right now prefer to return to you rather than have all their holes filled by me. This fight is over, Twilight. Ponyville is mine. It's just up to you to tell me if you want part of it as well."

"Send your minions away first."

"Of course."

The Corrupted start leaving the enclave via the hole in the wall they poured though mere minutes ago.

"Do you really mean it?" she leans towards me.

"Every word," I sit down, exhausted, "Look, Twilight, I could make you lose your horn right here and now. I could make Mana Burn strike you down and turn you into a Corrupted while your soldiers watch. You cannot win unless you cooperate with me, but if you win... just imagine what you could get," I stomp the ground, "Ponyville fortress was lost sixty years ago. I wasn't even born half of that time ago. I can't ensure your complete safety out here, but I can make your territory better protected than no amount of your effort could manage. What's more, I can help THEM," I look at the last of the Corrupted leaving the enclave area.

"Help them?"

"Twilight, they are starving as well. They just can't die easily, and one berry can sustain them for months if they don't fight or hunt too much. They are locked in constant hunger, lust, and confusion. I can't do it for every one of them, my head hurts with all their needy voices already. Whatever created them made a poor job of it, its main purpose was just to make something which spreads quickly, irresistibly, and devours everything. They were not made to become a civilization like ponies. We can change that... to an extent."

"Then why were they made, and by whom?"

I shake my head.

"I don't know. The Queen's memories and feelings point to something far to the west, but I don't know anything else."

"I still can't believe it. This way we will have enough surface food for everypony. We could even lift some of the population control laws. If you can keep the other Corrupted away we could even have a real city again," she starts crying, "After nearly a century... I was starting to lose hope..."

"Oh, one last thing, Twi- your Highness."

"Hmm?" she sniffs.

"While I can't see Lunar hanged for desertion, how about you 'suggest' to princess Luna to make him do something... interesting as a punishment for nearly ruining possible peace with Ponyville hive and the enclave?"

She looks at the batpony too scared to move under Chilly's watchful eye.

"Consider it done!"


	8. Heart Of Equestria: Twilight's Entry II

I hated myself so much, seeing nearly hundred ponies dragged away before my eyes by the Ponyville Corrupted. I wanted to fight, to use all of my alicorn power to destroy the hive and Nightshade as well, but it was just a wish, like any other day. I was still too young to understand how my alicorn divinity worked, and me using my magic recklessly would only lead to a complete disaster.

The enclave was at Nightshade's mercy.

I cursed every event that had led to me being forced to make the decision. I boiled with fury when the mare took one of my sons and turned him into a Corrupted... poor Mana Burn. Sadly, my mind still worked despite the pressure and kept yelling at me all of that was my fault - the inability to kick Nightshade out of the enclave after her return, the great need for knowledge making me ask her to perform an experiment on Mana, the desperation and the pressure of hungry and terrified ponies nagging me inside.

Sadly, I made the right choice.

Over the next weeks we reclaimed most of what used to be Ponyville fortress we lost some thirty years after the corruption started spreading. With the new farmland at our disposal we expected to be able to grow our population to three or four thousand, almost doubling the enclave's amount. Peace with Ponyville hive gave us so much, yet I still regret it even now, weeks later. Mana Burn and Knowldge eventually drifted apart, when Knowledge came to the realization that his brother was no more and that blood ties meant nothing in the face of loyalty to Nightshade anymore. However, what sort of mother would I be if I broke contact with Mana Burn?

Being a mother and a ruler is a difficult task to balance.

We gained so much. I doubt any words can express what that little spark of hope that ponies might grow in number again meant to me. Not only the farmland and access to the surface, but the information and knowledge Nightshade allowed us to gain by performing many more experiments on various kinds of Corrupted and semi-corrupted ponies. Granted, she denied us any invasive surgeries and such, and we had to consult her before performing anything even slightly uncomfortable on one of her "subjects", but I could understand her feelings more than well.

I would do the same.

We now had proof about what had been only guesses and observations before. The Corrupted are more plants than ponies after transformation. How or why their mind works in a similar matter we do not know, but their bodies can regenerate tremendously fast when in their native environment, like trees, only drastically accelerated. They can regrow any appendages aside from their heads, which explained Chilly's method of disposing of the enemy Corrupted quickly. To combat that "weakness", the Corrupted host three tough tendril-like tongues embedded in their thicker necks, making decapitating them less likely. As far as we know, the land the Corrupted transform into their habitat becomes something like mycelium to them, making even a decapitated powerful Corrupted reform fully in the matter of days. The only way Nightshade showed us to eliminate strong Corrupted completely was either luring them out of their habitat and killing them in an environment untouched by them, or taking their "essence" for oneself. Remembering her companion Chilly's despair when locked in a sterile laboratory and its transformation into a frozen forest after he gained power, I realized the first method was a time-limited one, and the second one worked only in battles between Corrupted.

Luckily for us, the common Corrupted are not capable of twisting their surroundings to such degree on their own.

We had time to gather samples and study everything we wanted. At first, my Hex Guards were strongly against walking among Corrupted, even when assured by Nightshade they will not be attacked, so the first expeditions around old Ponyville were performed by queen Chrysalis' changelings, our Black Ops. Chrysalis liked the sound of the nickname belonging to Griffon Empire Intelligence Service, don't ask me why, and she called her soldiers that way. Speaking of griffons, they helped us immensely during the first years of corruption, providing weapons and reinforcements. Unfortunately, when the Corrupted spread past Canterlot to the east, we lost our supply routes to the coast, and after some time even the bravest of caravaneers dared not travel through the infested territory. As for the CORRUPTED griffons, however, they are terrifying, even to me. I have to thank the stars every day for so little griffons being Equestrian residents pre-corruption. Normal Corrupted look for ponies to mate with when provided with the opportunity, and are mostly just doing their business which is walking around, sleeping, and breeding. Corrupted griffons, just like their ancient carnivorous nature dictates, hunt for ponies tirelessly, savagely torturing their prey before eating them alive.

Granted, other Corrupted do the same sometimes, Corruptors especially, but each time it seems the ponies enjoy it in the end. Not with the griffons, definitely not.

Speaking of the common Corrupted:

The lowest ranked, and the second least dangerous at least in terms of physical capabilities, are Drones. They are pony-sized, some even as small as changelings, and completely incapable of transforming the areas around them which means they cannot survive on their own. Their combat abilities should pose threat only to completely untrained civilians and foals. Even a strong stallion can make one or two Drones run away. Of course, their weakness is also a trap for those ponies who, let's say, cannot control their desires enough. Even these days, with corruption becoming a thing to study rather than a very rational fear, there are ponies who wish to have sex with Corrupted just to sate their lust for something ponies cannot provide. Those usually easily overpower a Drone, male or female, and lose themselves in rutting frenzy. Solely for that reason, Drones are not to be underestimated as they secrete pheromones taking advantage of that kind of ponies. Their appearance is the most similar to a pony's, aside from the black, oily coat and two tentacles on their back which are not useful for grabbing, but measure temperature, air flow, and other environmental attributes. They don't even have sharp teeth.

The second kind, the physically weakest, are Breeders. Regrettably, they are the biggest cause of our loss of young ponies freshly allowed to walk on the surface. After the age of sixteen, ponies are allowed to join surface missions and gain experience. Young colts and mares with hormones leaking out of their ears quite often fall for the sweet scents of Breeders, and try to explore a new world with their nethers. While Breeders pose the least threat to a level-headed pony, giving in to the pheromones they produce and mating with them is the end, no matter gender or capabilities of the fallen. Females offer those looking for them wide hips, slick coats, and overall plumper appearance topped by a set of huge, hanging teats constantly dripping black milk. It, just like all their bodily fluids, is supposed to be delicious. I have yet to ascertain that. Male Breeders are similar to earthpony stallions in shape and slightly bigger in size. Aside from their remarkable scent, what ponies immediately recognize about them are their enormous testicles. Their genitals, however, are moldable and transform to perfectly fit females they mate with. Both Breeder genders also seem to possess limited amount of mind-reading abilities allowing them to "fit with" their prey better. They can be both submissive or dominant to bring out the appropriate response from those mating with them, ponies specifically. Among Corrupted, there is no submission and dominance, as both genders desperately need each other. The exact purpose of Breeders, however, is a strange thing. As observed, Corrupted can grow in egg-like sacks sprouting out of the ground as well as being given birth by a female Breeder. A mare impregnated by a male Breeder will lose her mind and give birth to a Corrupted before transforming herself. These three methods seem to be redundant ways of spreading in case some were unavailable, but that is only a guess sice even Nightshade could not give me an answer. More tests are pending.

Hunters are the third "weakest" kind of wild Corrupted, although here the term weak starts to lose its meaning. Both males and females are lean, toned, and extremely athletic-looking. They are the lowest ranked Corrupted possessing the thicker necks and the grappling mouth-tentacles, and the ability to shift their bodies. As far as my experiments went, they can change their hooves to talons or claws, they can lengthen their teeth to a small degree, making me believe they are capable of taking down a manticore. Their natural advantage when hunting lies in their whip-like tail capable of grabbing or being changed into a a sharp-tipped whip. While the Hunters don't look like it due to their natural prowling posture, they are on average about twenty percent bigger than ponies. Their muscles are tough as ropes and serve well to protect them from blows of both blunt and sharp weapons. Still, two or three well-trained ponies can deal with a Hunter without sustaining casualties or sometimes even injuries due to the Hunters' animalistic and primitive fighting. Nightshade's companion Chilly proves, however, that such a theory still needs testing, and that ponies transformed into Hunters can retain some of their training, especially ex-guards. Meeting those could result in a very threatening encounter.

I have yet to perform extensive testing on a Protector, a Corruptor, and a Queen.

 _\- Twilight Sparkle, first notes after the reclaiming of Ponyville._


	9. Heart Of Equestria: Breached

I levitate a thick book down from a shelf far above me. It silently glides through the still air of the royal library in Canterlot castle, and ends up on a reading table in front of me. It looks like a tiny speck in comparison to the massive bookshelves reaching the ceiling high above stacked and stacked with more books.

"Okay," I mumble to myself. It helps to keep the constant solitude at bay, "Let's see if 'Miraculous Minds of Equestria: Volume VI' contains something more valuable than the previous five parts."

Just from the first few pages I can guess it does not, but my job here is to scour the library for any mentions of obscure magic, inventions, and anything forgotten by ponies and time. I've been doing this for nearly a year already, ever since old Dusty Quill went out of the castle to give his old bones one last taste of willing mare meat. I guess fucking a Hunter till death is still a better way to go than dying of dust-filled lungs. I'm pretty sure I will do the same one day, although I doubt my willpower will last for sixty years.

I sigh, imagining my name in a book like the one I'm reading:

 _Bound Tome, a unicorn - discovered a spell reversing mind-deteriorating effects of corruption, thus ending the era of darkness. In addition, he improved the magic to such degree that ponies could keep the corrupted traits if they wanted to. Died at the blessed age of ninety of a heart-attack while having sex with his three six-breasted alicorn wives._

The image makes me smile and shake my head while waiting for my blood to return to its rightful place.

"Heh, I doubt I'll last two more years like this. Perhaps I should have kept trying to get into Hex Guard just so that there would be something mares could admire about me. Nah, failing the exams three times was a bit too much."

Funny thing, I am pretty good at complex magic. Sadly, I find it difficult to focus under pressure even despite all the unicorn battlemage training. With me being sub-par at physical activities and not really useful in a fight, I joined the ranks of research mages and started studying with Dusty Quill here in Canterlot when I was allowed to go to the surface. It should have been simple - spend five to ten years here dealing with the library, finish my apprenticeship, and then join the active research back in Ponyville. Now, with Quill being one of the corrupted monstrosities outside, I'm going to sit here forever, day after day, going through ancient books which couldn't have been moved to Ponyville due to being too derelict to survive the transport.

Yep, most of them. Thankfully, the library is protected by a spell keeping the books inside from turning to dust when touched. I have aaaaaaall the time in the world to read volume after volume of, while super interesting, probably useless tomes.

"Hmph! I'm giving it a year before I walk outside and spread my asscheeks in front of a Protect-" I shake my head, "What did I say? I mean before I wreck a Corrupted mare's... ehm."

I might not be too experienced or, well, experienced at all in such matters, but this library offers some rather "instructional" books, such as "A Comprehensive Guide to Alicorn Anatomy and Heat Cycles". Too bad that in this age, where most of the population is forced to go through periodical military training, I am not that attractive to anypony.

Any mare, I mean, M A R E!

Well, reading here alone lets mind wander, and where else could the mind of an eighteen-year old "untapped" unicorn go other than... there.

"Amber Trap, a unicorn - the inventor of the 'Want it, Need it' spell. Known for using it repeatedly on himself to gain the attention of ladies. Died by casting it unknowingly in the vicinity of a deserted dragoness."

I snicker. No matter how advanced and intelectually ascended unicorn wizards are, long-term loneliness is a crippling thing to everypony. Perhaps I should try using the spell in front of the Nightguard mare outside, who is patrolling the library. Getting some batpony tail would be pretty cool.

"Nah, not even that kind of magic will make your skinny ass attractive to one of the gorgeous thestrals. Better keep doing your job while you still can, and when it becomes too crushing," I shake my head, "there is a whole world of carnal pleasures just outside of the protective spells hosted within the castle walls."

Yep, I'm giving it a year. Perhaps I might even bother with making an idiot of myself in front of one of them by using my patented pick-up lines like "Would you like to know about some pre-corruption history?"

"La la la la, I'm a failure, la la la."

Halfway through my shift, I hear some scratching and the clanking of armor from the hallway outside. Nothing unusual. The library's protection spells lower all incoming noise, presumably so that the business outside wouldn't bother the readers in the old days. An another Nightguard patrolling the castle must have stopped to chat with the mare on the library shift.

A cool fact - Nightguards used to actually patrol just at night in the pre-corruption era, but now the name is just a designation for all ponies serving under princess Luna, no matter night or day.

"Should be another of my excellent pick-ups..." I snort in contempt, "Hey, girl, I know loads of cool facts, does that make me cool?" I imitate a mare's voice and make a mocking face, "No, no, it doesn't. Now go away and let this handsome and muscular earthpony buy me a drink."

So yes, this is my life. Sitting alone, reading, and being sarcastic to myself while a single Nightguard stands in front of the door in the hallway. I guess I should be happy none of them ever go inside aside from using the bathroom, and that they can't hear me. The odds of me finding anything relevant here are so slim I'm pretty sure the only reason I'm here is so that there is one less potential Corrupted outside.

The heavy, barred door of the library shakes with a blow that makes dust fall of the ceiling-high shelves.

"That can't be good."

Excellent, I might have a career as a marginally successful fortuneteller.

A quick walk to the window leading into the hallway later, I slide under it as a head covered in slick, black mane passes by.

"Corrupted, here inside the castle?" I take another brief glance outside and see several Hunters prowling through the hallway.

I crawl underneath the window again to have a look to the opposite side of the hallway and see the most beautiful mare I have ever seen, her black posterior inviting me with its delicious firm plumpness. Several small tentacles followed by a tongue slip out of her marehood as if they saw me looking, and slide back.

She turns halfway to me and I see the Nightguard mare guarding me being tangled in tentacles originating from the other mare's chest.

"That's no normal Corrupted. A Corruptor perhaps?" I whisper, dying with curiosity. Granted, most of it is coming from my nether parts telling me that surrendering myself to the Corruptor is an excellent idea, "Oh dear..."

The batpony struggling in the Corruptor's grasp is pulled upwards to her captor's mouth, and several more tendrils wrap around her neck, squeezing. As she opens her mouth to gasp for breath, the Corruptor mare draws her into a sloppy kiss. Splatters of black liquid taint the floor, but the choking thestral gulps down much much more of it. It goes on forever, and I watch my guard's belly bloating into unreasonable proportions before she is released and falls limply down, opening and closing her mouth while a thin black stream dribbles out. The Corruptor then presses her muzzle against the guard's rump, and starts sucking everything she gave her back again.

More than what she gave her.

The utter horror at the mare's body deflating until there are only skin and clearly visible bones left breaks my horny stupor.

"Invisibility, invisibility, invisibility," I curse my nerves forbidding me to remember the spell I'm looking for.

The Corruptor can't have seen me. Yet, as she turns to the window I'm peeking through, I know she somehow had to feel me ogling her, and deliberatly showed me the entire spectacle.

As the first strands of her black mane appear right in front of the window, I finally turn invisible, and breathe out deeply. There is no way I'll be able to keep the spell going while moving, so I stare into the abyss of two pupil-less black eyes looking through the window at what MUST be empty library.

She smiles warmly, and opens her mouth, giving me a good look at the rows and rows of sharp teeth inside. Her jaw splits, opening the tunnel even more.

I don't wait. She somehow knows, and it has nothing to do with seeing.

My quick dive backwards is accompanied by shattering glass and three tentacles whipping the air where I was a millisecond ago. There is a set of iron bars on the hallway part of the window, giving me hope that she can't get through.

However,-

*SLAM!*

The door shakes again and cracks.

-it seems she knows as well.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit," my muttering habit returns, "So, invis is out. Can't teleport down to the inhabited floors either."

The library is well-protected against magical interference.

"I don't want to become a tube of nutrient paste. It tastes like crap," I complain.

Another blow. The wooden part of the door splinters, but holds, kept together by the metal framework.

I rush to the nearest window leading outside and shoot it open. The rebounding shutters smack me in the face.

"Blrmb!" I shake the daze off and look out, "Hmmm, if I grab the windowsil, swing myself just in the right way, and let go at the right time, I might just miss that balcony by inches and break my neck down on the castle grounds. Perhaps if I hit that Hunter before I hit the ground I might break only two legs and still get the fucking of a lifetime as all the others pile on me."

I look away from the black shapes sleeping or slowly walking faaaaaaaar down.

"So, scaling the castle wall down isn't happening. How the frick did the Corrupted get inside anyway? The protective enchantments have been working for decades, keeping even the Canterlot hive Queen out."

The door shatters.

"IM'SORRYPRINCESSLUNA!" I focus on the only thing I can see besides the Corruptor melting the remains of wood and metal with her touch - the enormous bookshelf filled to the brim right next to the entrance. The glow of my horn blinds me, and the mental strain makes me feel as if my bowels were being evacuated via my ears, but the shelf moves.

The Corruptor looks up as the rain of books from the toppling shelf starts.

The entire library shakes from the impact.

"Didn't know you spent your free time buried in books as well, miss. Perhaps we should meet for luuuun-FUCK!" I spot shadows wrapping around my legs a fraction of a second before real tentacles materialize to grab me.

The semi-liquid Corruptor growls as the pile of books nearby melts and reveals her underneath, crushed by the shelf. Talons grow on her one free front leg, dig deep into the marble floor, and she starts pulling herself towards me.

"Alright, crushing doesn't work as well as I hoped," I turn to look for a way out which wouldn't lead into a hallway filled with Hunters through a doorway blocked by a gigantic shelf with a pissed off Corruptor under it.

Everything goes hot and red.

I wipe the bloody gunk off my face, looking around at its source.

The Corruptor dragging herself inch by inch from her not-too-effective prison is forgotten for a moment when I notice a Hunter's remains lodged halfway through the window I was peeking to the hallway through before.

The steel bars held, the minced Hunter did not.

I don't dare to go closer to the rapidly dying Corrupted to find out what showed him inside with such strength it grated him on the bars.

"Alright, one down, time to return to the-"

The Corruptor screeches, and something drags her irresistibly backwards through the door blocked by the shelf, her talons cutting the floor even further. For just the tiniest moment I pity her, then I return to the reality where she sucked a mare dry, and not in the fun way, and concern myself with the possibility of me being next.

"Okay, okay, don't panic. Somepony out there is just using ridiculously strong telekinesis to do this. Princess Luna perhaps? What would she be doing here, though?" I raise my voice and yell, "IS ANYPONY THERE?"

Nothing aside from hushed screeching, blows, and thumping of Corrupted running away.

All noise finally stops.

"The Corrupted are inside the castle. A pony did not do THAT," I look at the bleeding mush remaining of the Hunter blocking the window and come to an excellent conclusion, "And I really don't want to meet whoever DID do it."

I run past bookshelf after bookshelf, dive into the furthest storage closet, cast an invisibility spell, a soundproofing spell, a barier protecting me against scrying, and quietly whimper and whine to myself over and over while trembling like a little filly.

Yep, I am a failure.


	10. Heart Of Equestria: Attack

Rocking back and forth in a tiny dark storeroom might not be the greatest achievement a pony can go for, but I believe it is important to spend some time reflecting on one's past deeds. I gradually stop foaming at the mouth out of sheer terror, and when nothing barges in to melt me to goo, I regain some shaky control of my legs.

"Get it together, Bound Tome!" I slap myself, "What would your dad say if he saw you like this?"

I keep talking while disabling all the protective spells I managed to layer on myself in my panic.

"Braaaaaains! That's what zombies are supposed to say, right? Being dead does that to a pony."

Well, he is not dead, but he may as well be. He got turned into a Corrupted three weeks ago during the big attack on Ponyville. Mom has been dead for years, but that is something a colt whose both parents are Hex Guards has to learn to cope with.

"Hmph, since he's one of THEM now, shouldn't he be saying 'Hornyyyyy!' or something? That's what they are all about."

A quick, and most of all - careful, examination of the library shows that nothing or nopony is inside, and that all damage I caused was focused on two bookshelves, ones which I have finished reading already. I'm not sure when the second one toppled over, but that does not matter now.

Sadly, said two stacked bookshelves are blocking my exit.

Engage magic - fireeeee!

A quick 'whoosh!' of flames later, I still stand in the same spot, staring at the untouched wood.

"Right, protected from magical damage. Telekinesis?"

My brain feels for a moment like being squeezed in a vice, with my reward being the stoic barrier still blocking my way.

"Even one is too heavy. Can I squeeze in?"

I might be skinny, but to get through I would have to become the mare currently lying sucked dry outside.

"Hmmm..."

I DID see a balcony during my erratic looking for an escape earlier. The library takes most of this floor's space, perhaps one of the other windows might give me a better way to get down there.

It does. A window near the corner is right above a balcony which has to lead either into some room or straight into the main hallway. It is still too high to drop down, though.

"What to do? What to do...?" every detail of the situation is running through my head, "Slowfall spell?"

A good idea. Spell which allows one to drift down like a leaf is great, but if wind blows the wrong way, I end up down on the castle courtyard, surrounded by more Corrupted than I can count.

Me am smart!

Books could be my saving grace. Unfortunately, the amount from the toppled shelves is nowhere near enough to cushion my fall, and I'm not throwing down more of the ancient tomes than I have to.

"Weren't there cardboard boxes in the storage closet?" I think aloud.

Minutes later, the balcony under the window is filled with enough cardboard for me to possibly only hurt myself badly instead of going splat straight up.

"Breathe in, breathe out! Don't think, because then you might realize how dumb this idea iiiiiiiiiis!" I fall flat on the pile, "OOF!"

Rolling around to regain some sense of up and down, I feel pretty accomplished.

"Not bad, Bound Tome, not-" the high pile starts toppling over the railings along with me, "BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!"

I survive the shower of falling boxes hanging by the neck of an ornate gargoyle. Deep down, a black head pokes out of the relocated pile, looking around in confusion. Chill runs down my spine when the stricken Corrupted looks upwards at me, but when he or she crawls into a surviving box and arranges several more into a little nest, I can't help but grin.

"You're welcome!"

Swinging myself up on the balcony, I shoot open the locked door ot the hall. Thank heavens for no magical protection on the upper floors aside from books. Now to run four stairs down, alert some Nightguards on the way and the princess in the throne room.

"Wait a minute. Either they know already because the Corrupted are down there as well, or they won't believe me. After all, how would Corrupted get to the upper floors first. I'm sure somepony would ring an alarm reaching up to the library," I freeze and hide behind the nearest corner, "Unless they're gone already."

My stomach revolves at the thought of me possibly being the last pony in Canterlot. Last one out of the two hundred or so ponies stationed in the castle - guards, servants, mages. However, that's the worst case scenario. Let's plan for that one later. First, in case everything is fine and this was just some random breach of a place nopony inspected, I need to get some proof. On top of that, something killed the Corrupted who attacked me, and Corrupted don't fight each other as a rule.

Silencing spell envelops my hooves, and I sneak to one of the two staircases leading upwards. While the Canterlot castle is circular from the outside, its each floor is a square of hallways with rooms on both sides. There are several oddities on the upper floors, such as random towers scattered on the roof with small access paths, but that's the general gist of the layout.

"Ewww," I shudder as I reach the library again, this time from the outside, and bite my lip as I see the corpse of the guard mare sucked dry. I didn't know her name, I never know the guys outside, "I'm really sorry, ma'am. If it was anypony else, they could have helped you somehow... probably. I couldn't. At least if I survive this I'll go tell your family myself so they can vent their rage on me. I sure wish this was me and that you were the one safe-ish in the library. The only reason anypony bothers patrolling up here is me reading books anyway. I'm really, really sorry."

Shaking my head, I leave the poor batpony's remains, taking her Nightguard badge. I meant everything I said, but there is nothing self-pity will accomplish here. Her badge should be enough of a proof, but a spike of curiosity drives me to follow the trail of obliterated Corrupted and puddles of gore.

"What could have done so much damage to something bladed weapons only scratch?"

Thanks to the silencing spell, my heavy breathing is the only thing disrupting my ability to hear anything that could move nearby.

"Glk!" half of a Corrupted's body flies out of a door leading to what I know is a common bathroom, deadly jaws trying to bite me along the way. Nearby puddles of blood and flesh get slurped into the torso, and a male Corruptor reforms. It has to be one despite looking like a Hunter. Those definitely cannot do such a thing, or if they can then stars help us all now.

A huge, muscular, and -strangely enough- winged Corrupted charges out of the bathroom, knocking me away with its membranous wing. When I stop seeing stars and coughing, the big purple blur has just splattered something black over a wall at the end of the hallway. For being larger than princess Luna, who outgrows even the biggest earthpony as an alicorn, that guy is fast. Definitely a Protector. My eyes start focusing, and I see the black remains of a Corruptor reform again under the brutal assault of the Protector.

"Alright... I think I've got... all the proof... I need," I gather myself, gasping in pain.

For good measure, I look into the bathroom. The toilet in one of the stalls is ripped out, and the masonry around the thick main drainpipe where all the mess used to go is demolished. All these pipes lead to the sewers deep under the castle.

"Hmm... did they crawl five floors up the pipe? How? And most importantly - why?" I shake my head at the ingenious and yet incredibly stupid-looking plan, "Nevermind, I know where they came from, and I know that whatever beat the shit out of the Corrupted at the library was a different one. Perhaps two hives fighting or something. The others need to know... unless they do already."

Summoning a little cup I have on the table inside my room, I sweep some Corrupted's remains inside and sneak as fast downstairs as I can. The noise coming from the drain pipe makes me hurry, but not enough to forget safety.

"Teleportation?" I ponder, "Nah, I'm too exhausted and my head is still ringing. Don't wanna end in the middle of a wall. The soundproofing will have to suffice."

My knees give out when I meet two Nightguards on a patrol two floors lower.

"I need to talk to princess Luna. We have to raise the alarm, the Corrupted are inside!"

The guards are confused at first, but one leads me down to the throne room and one rushes off.

Thankfully, it seems that either the situation is much less dire than I believed, or it is much worse because nopony knows anything yet. The ornate double door opens, the Nightguards outside usher me in, and my eyes go wide.

Princess Luna is surrounded by four Corrupted, two stallions and two mares. One is an athletic mare as tall as the princess, but leaner, with more pronounced muscles, smaller wings, grey mane, and slick, black coat. One is a white Corrupted portraying all characteristics of a Hunter aside from the color. He and the second mare, who is a Hunter as well are just sitting nearby, staring at me now. The final Corrupted is a well-built grey stallion whose tail is wrapped around the handle of a greatsword, granting me a look at his incredibly fine posterior. He seems familiar for some reason.

"Your Highness, we can't help you retake Canterlot. I can barely hold control over the Ponyville hive, and I know how the Corrupted felt when the other queen was forcing them to attack the enclave. I'm not strong enough to push them that far, and I don't want to. I know Canterlot is important for you, but to everypony else it is just an empty city sitting on the side of a mountain."

"Nightshade!" Luna objects strongly, "Canterlot is the heart of-" she stops when the two Hunters growl as I approach, "What is going on, Bound Tome?"

"Calm down, Chilly," the Corrupted mare whom princess Luna called Nightshade says, and the white Hunter goes quiet.

"Ummm..." I might be juuust a tiny bit confused at whoever these non-attacking Corrupted are. Then I put two and two together as my overtaxed mind recalls the news about Ponyville. Well, my dad got corrupted during the fight, so I should at least honor him by remembering this little detail, "Your Highness, Corrupted are inside the castle."

I realize how ridiculous that sounds when faced with four of them looking at me.

"I mean the bad ones. Up on the library floor," a very important, and equally shocking, piece of information sinks through my thick skull, "You know who I am, your Highness? I mean, by name."

"Of course I do, young apprentice, I know all those who are brave enough to stay here in the castle with me. Now, calm down and say your piece."

I take a deep breath.

"I got attacked in the library. The mare guarding me... is dead... I hope..." I stop, knowing how dumb I sound, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it-"

"Focus!" Luna says firmly, "I have a very good idea what you mean."

"They tried to get inside, so I blocked the door with the shelves, but a Corruptor still got in. Then this big guy dragged her out and..."

Everything in my head is swirling, and I can barely think.

"I had to jump from a window. I got out to bring you proof that I'm not insane, or a coward, or that I did something to her. They came through a toilet drain pipe."

The guard tags, the badge, and the cup with the Hunter's remains clink on the floor. I realize a big chunk of the fatigue I'm feeling is due to me levitating all the things I gathered all this time.

"The... big guy?" Nightshade asks.

"A Protector. He killed a lot of them, including at least two Corruptors," I nod.

That makes her take a step back.

"Oh?" she turns to the grey Corrupted in Hex Guard platemail, "Mana Burn, any ideas?"

"No, ma'am. However, Canterlot garrison has not reported any unexplained losses, which makes me think it might be a Corrupted along the lines of your mate Chilly."

Mana Burn, Mana Burn, Mana Burn... name rings a bell. Princess Twilight's bodyguard! How come he is a Corrupted? This does not look like only a partial thing.

"He's not my mate!" Nightshade squeaks.

Mana Burn's knowing stare makes her look away.

"Not important!" she coughs, "If he is not a mindless beast then finding him might be a good idea. Perhaps the upper layers of the castle have been safe due to his interference just like Chilly's forest."

Princess Luna walks up, and wraps her wings around me.

"Are you up for one more service, Bound Tome?"

Hearing her say my name is like a gust of fresh air. No mare aside from my mom has ever said it with caring. I can't leave her hanging just because of some minor things like coat-wetting fear, cracked ribs, all that coupled with physical and mental exhaustion.

"Anything, your Highness."

"Then, please, stay here while I assign a squad of Nightguards to accompany you to where the Corrupted came from."

"Mana Burn," Nightshade orders, "Take YOUR mate and go as well. Fight if necessary, but bring clearer information," she turns to me, "I mean no disrespect to you, mister Bound Tome, but your report is a little garbled."

"Sorry," I mutter.

"Of course," Mana Burn nods.

I am a bit nervous to be surrounded by Mana Burn and the Huntress while Nightshade and princess Luna return to their original debate. Without a word, the Huntress presses her side against me as I drink some water, waiting for the Nightguards to assemble. Mana Burn does the same from the other side. Confused beyond belief, I rest my head on Mana's shoulder. The Huntress' coat is soft, and she smells like soil and grass, but Mana Burn's pronounced muscles make me feel safe after what I've been through. Perhaps looking for a mare my entire life was a wrong direction.

"Hmph?!" I open my eyes, "Whuh, what?"

"You doze off," Mana Burn says gently, "but we have to go now, the guards are ready."

A dozen Nightguards, Mana Burn, the Huntress, and I march upwards through the castle, eyes and ears peeled. The grey Corrupted stops us at one point.

"Something is off," Mana growls, "I can FEEL other Corrupted, but I can't see anything."

The walls around turn black with goo dripping from the ceiling. Four Corruptors surround us, taking alicorn forms as they materialize from the slime. All of a sudden, the hallways burst with the movement of hooves from afar.

"They knew about us..." I breathe out.

"Indeed," Mana Burn scowls, "This is way too well-coordinated for the wild ones. A hive is attacking," he nudges a paralyzed Nightguard nearby, "GET THE ONES BEHIND US AND RETREAT!"

Nightguards in front of me, stopping the Corruptors and the incoming horde. Nightguards behind me, helping Mana Burn and Huntress to clear our escape route.

In the middle of them - me, legs trembling and head not working properly. I wish I could use magic in combat, but I can't! I wish I could do at least something a bit useful, but I can't!

Nightguards are getting ripped apart, but all I can do is-

"RUN!" Mana Burn orders when the path is clear.


	11. Heart Of Equestria: Bad decisions

Warning bells toll throughout the castle as we flee, tide of Hunters breathing down our necks. Our only saving grace is that the floors are high, and thus the long staircases connecting them cannot host the entire horde on our backs. Corrupted inside the castle, this has never happened before. The ancient magic, older than the Corrupted, older even than the ponies before held any enemy at bay in even the darkest of times.

I keep trying to think of something to do to help, but I can barely keep pace with the running guards. Breathing steadily becomes my most important concern.

"Screw this!" curses a Nightguard behind me, the commander of the squad assigned to assist me. I mean, officially Mana Burn is the leader, but he is a Hex Guard, or a Corrupted now, so rank does not really apply to him, "Whisper! Dusk Shield! STAND YOUR GROUND!"

Two Nightguards immediately stop, and join him in facing the incoming Hunters.

"We are retreating, that's an order!" Mana Burn yells.

"Go, evacuate the princess and the civilians. You'll need every second you can get!" the commander replies, "BOYS! GET THE SONS OF BITCHES!"

They get swarmed immediately, but the Hunters aren't able to resist their instinct to play with their prey, giving us precious time to get away.

There is only six of us as we reach the second floor. The sounds of panicking and quickly moving ponies from all around accompany us to the throne room.

"Your Highness," Mana Burn reports loudly from the entrance, "An entire hive must be attacking! You have to evacuate to Ponyville at once!"

"We are not letting Canterlot fall!" princess Luna objects, "How did you defeat the Ponyville attackers?"

"With way too much luck and them underestimating us severely!" Nightshade replies, "I don't have the strength to deal with a hive this big," she closes her eyes for a second, "and the Queen behind this knows about me. How, I have no idea, but we might have misunderstood the mentality of Queen-type Corrupted completely."

"YOU are one!"

"I wasn't born like this. Maybe if I had a month or two more to get over the hundreds of minds inside my head then I could do something, but we will lose if we fight straight up."

"Alright," princess Luna nods as the throne room fills with more and more ponies seeking refuge, "IS EVERYPONY LISTENING?"

The door to the throne room shakes.

There is only about a hundred ponies inside, barely half of the castle's population, but if the Corrupted are breaking in here then the rest are either hiding in their rooms and beyond help, or they are already a part of the attacking hive.

Black tendrils slip inbetween the door wings, and rip them open.

A tall mare similar to Nightshade, only completely black, and with a mass of tentacles on her back, is staring straight at Luna and smiling. Her mouth opens, and with her loud hiss the ranks of Corrupted behind her charge.

The first wave of attackers is sucked inside a black hole appearing on the floor with princess Luna roaring:

"THE HEART OF EQUESTRIA SHALL NEVER FALTER!"

Cosmic magic bending time and space like this makes my eyes go wide with wonder and admiration. This is the peak of wizardry, the power of an immortal archmage like princess Luna. The sort of magic every unicorn apprentice only dreams of. Frost so shattering that it is only found in the darkness between stars destroys Corrupted after Corrupted. The blazing plasma of distant suns melts others, but more and more come.

"What are you standing here with dropped jaw for? RUN!" a nearby Nightguard nudges me.

The princess covers our escape as best as she can, but the focus she needs to perform such spells prevents her from moving.

As the last of us, namely me, still in utter astonishment at the magic presented, leave the throne room through a secret exit behind the throne, we give one last look to the midnight-blue alicorn erecting a magical barrier around herself.

There is no time to rest, though. Hoofsteps are coming from all around us. It seems the castle is teeming with Corrupted.

With Nightshade and her entourage leading the way and taking down any solitary Corrupted blocking our progress, we successfully get into the dungeons where the entrance to the tunnel leading to Ponyville is. Black goo drips from the ceiling, giving away that Corruptors have found us. Some ponies are grabbed by tentacles coming from upwards and wrapping them instantly in black cocoons. I jump and roll on the floor to dodge two trying to snatch me. Complete panic of screaming servants breaks the little semblance of order we've had a second ago, and everpony starts running to what they believe to be a safe spot.

I, for one, would love to choose to stay with Nightshade, Mana Burn, Huntress, and Chilly, who are fairly successfully eliminating the Corruptors dropping through the ceiling, but a veil of tentacles between us makes me follow a bunch of Nightguards into a different hallway.

Nearly half of us disappeared during the surprise attack.

"The east wing armory!" I hear somepony yell nearby, "We can cut it off from the rest of the castle."

I've never heard of anything like isolating a wing of the castle being possible, but I'm not going to argue now.

We run and run, and while I want to be useful and come up with something to save us, I can barely keep myself from collapsing after today. A painful infinity of burning lungs and shaking legs later, I slump down on the floor of a large room in what has to be the east wing.

"Engage lockdown!" I hear nearby, and feel a massive magical charge build up all around.

I pass out. Through blurring vision I see that I'm not the only one.

Angry voices wake me up.

"We can't afford to wait here! We need to rescue princess Luna," a Nightguard with silver insignia on his armor is arguing with several civilians.

"How? We can't fight through that many of those things!" one of them complains.

"Yes, we can! They just took us by surprise. Anyway, it's either that, or waiting here for a rescue that might not even come. After all, how do we know that the Corrupted who ran towards the Ponyville tunnel weren't only playing with us, mapping the castle out for the rest? They are BEASTS! A century of safety and boom! We get a 'diplomatic' visit and this happens. A bit too much to be a coincidence, am I right?"

"That's dumb," I mutter. Sadly, batponies are known for their hearing.

"What did you say?" he turns to me, fuming. Everypony goes silent. I don't know where the others have gone off to, but the two dozen ponies staring at me make me want to implode and disappear.

"Ummm... I mean, I don't know who this Nightshade is, but Mana Burn used to be an elite Hex Guard, princess Twilight Sparkle's personal companion. I doubt he would-"

"Oh yes," the Nightguards rolls his eyes, "because ponies who lost it due to corruption are known for their ability to return to their previous life," he spits sarcastically, "Now shut up, kid. Adults are talking. If you really want to be useful, go grab a sword out of the armory and help us save your princess."

"Uhh..."

"Thought so," he scowls at me, "You're a disgrace, unicorn. You have no place in a city as sacred as Canterlot."

"I am a librarian, an unlike you I'm not suicid-"

His punch sends me to the floor. I may have hit a nerve, but I will be the one trying to get the horseshoe tattoo off my cheek for weeks. Well, so much for the just a little over-the-top loyalty, I mean fanaticism, of the Nightguard batponies.

Only about ten of us stayed behind when the expedition to rescue the princess left, and those were the guys too hurt to be of any use.

So, I'm the only semi-healthy pony who didn't volunteer.

"It's not that I don't want to help. I just think attacking a horde like that is beyond dumb," I complain to nopony listening, "And to think she even knows who I am..."

I shake my head.

"With all the attention on the throne room, I COULD try to get to the Ponyville tunnel myself," I keep mumbling, "I mean, who knows if Mana Burn got there safely to inform princess Twilight, right?"

While travelling to Ponyville through the tunnel on hoof would take one over a day of walking, there are teleportation spots used in case a quick visit is needed which transport the user towards the guard post on the other side.

Nopony objects to me leaving the safe room. Maybe they think I'm a coward and deserve whatever happens to me, or maybe they really are all unconscious. I think it's about fifty-fifty. As soon as I get to a staircase up, I take it to avoid the main force of Corrupted last seen on the first floor.

"Good choice," I force a weak smile as I hear the sounds of combat from downstairs, "Now to get to the other side, take the stairs down, and pray nothing is between me and the dungeons."

Sounds of whining and heavy breathing are coming from around a corner, so I sneak a peek before moving onwards.

Two Hunters are mating wildly, although it looks like a really pleasant combat. The stallion is on top for a moment, pounding away the sqealing mare, but soon after he groans in what presumably is an orgasm, she uses his moment of weakness to get on top and start riding him with no time to recover.

Before I even realize it, I'm breathing deep the scents of sex while running my telekinesis up and down my own member in sync with the Hunter mounting the mare again.

They stop, and I can see their nostrils flaring. Both heads turning to me, I get a glimpse of their hungry grins.

"Fuck..."

I'm not sure if it was an observation, a curse, or a vision of my immediate future, but I run with one more leg -Well, I wish I was that endowed. Sadly, not even close- back to the main staircase. The short rest must have cleared my head a little, so I scratch a symbol into the dust on the stairs up, and my horn flashes. I wait for the Hunters to walk up.

"Explosive runes," I smile smugly as the staircase goes up in flames and flying stones. My joy disappears quickly as I burst out in coughing from all the mess flying around, "Okay... maybe I've overdone... it a bit..."

After recovering my breath, I look at the collapsed stairs and the two Corrupted buried underneath, and head for the staircase on the other side of the castle.

"Alright, the plan still stands. I'm just on a third floor now. But hey, guess I was right! Only two Hunters in the way."

My head hurts again. The overuse of magic today is taking its toll. Trying to shake the headache off, I turn the corner again and trip over something.

"Owwwwww..."

A warm lick followed by a wet kiss makes my condition a lot better and my confusion go out of propotions. A chubby black mare is lying next to me, tentacles running along my coat, but not attempting to grab or anything. My gasp of breath is followed by another nuzzle and lick. I stumble up and aim my horn at the Corrupted mare just lying there, smiling, and watching me with the weird yellow eyes with no whites. Unlike the fit physique of most Corrupted, this one's wide hips, puckered mouth, and teats the size of balloons assure me this is a female Breeder.

So... why am I still thinking fairly clearly and not blindly rutting her to oblivion? Is she one of the good ones, maybe?

"Hello, ma'am. Can you talk?" I ask shyly, and once again feel super dumb. She just tilts her head.

Breathing in her sweet scent, I lean down to her. If I'm not losing it already, then I might be fine because Breeders aren't supposed to be too dangerous. Out of curiosity, I poke her soft belly.

Yeeeeah, I'm not too sure what to do around mares, much less Corrupted ones. My previous idea was that I would sort of be the bottom one if I ever decided to leave the castle for one final -and first, regrettably- romp.

My curiosity wins, and I run my hooves all over her body, careful not to offend her in any way. The six tentacles coming out of her back do the same to me. Perhaps I could...

Her teats feel almost boiling hot to touch, and the thick and heavy black milk that comes out as I suckle on them makes my body shiver from my hooves up. I don't know how long I just lie there and drink, but it doesn't seem to stop. When I wake up from my stupor, I feel a lot better. Still exhausted, but sort of invigorated at the same time. I quickly check myself in a conjured mirror for any unwanted changes associated with something I REALLY shoouldn't have done.

White coat - check! Although slight grey veins around my mouth portray the sign that I DID get touched by corruption a moment ago. Nothing even remotely serious, though.

Brown mane - check! Once again, black strands here and there, but nothing like what should have happened to somepony consorting with a Breeder.

Book and a magnifying glass cutie mark - check!

"Phew!" I wipe my forehead. Corrupted ponies lost their cutie mark along with their mind.

End result - I am completely fine, which, no matter any possible set of coincidences, should not be the case.

"Maybe I could do something more?" the blood currently residing in my fully prepared lower regions makes an interesting decision for me.

When the Breeder doesn't object as I press my muzzle against her marehood, I start licking.

Sadly, thinking with one's balls is always a bad idea.

Time loses its meaning with me drinking once again, this time the spicy liquid the Breeder releases with every few touches.

Hoofsteps make me snap back to reality.

Two more Hunters are approaching. On the positive side, this is about as close to getting laid as I'll ever get.

"Bye, ma'am!" I lunge back towards the staircase which, after my previous narrow escape, leads only up.

She hisses at me, but is silenced quickly by one of the Hunters jumping straight at her in a rutting frenzy.

"Okay okay okay," I mumble while galloping like a madpony, "This is impossible. It has never happened before, that a stallion would return to being normal after losing it with a Breeder. Am I resistant somehow, or does even corruption not want me?"

I bet it's the latter. A quick run by the window of the darkening day reveals my muzzle turned oily black, but aside from that there are no more changes. I guess I now have a permanent mark allowing everypony to see what a loser like me has to stoop to to get some.

There is no way for me to blow up another staircase, but after drinking the Breeder's milk I can focus enough to cast a brief invisibility spell and hide behind a pillar on the side of the hall. The Hunter runs by and disappears behind a corner.

So this is it... Breeders don't exist just for enjoyment and spreading of corruption, they can restore strength of a wounded or exhausted ones. I'm petty sure a dying Corrupted who would do the same thing I did would be fully healed after few minutes of drinking.

They seem solitary, or living in packs of strict ranking unless they are a part of a hive, but that is not the case. They are all connected, a complex ecosystem of living creatures providing for others. Just like the world itself.

A revelation hits me.

"Flies aren't gone, bugs aren't gone, birds aren't gone, otherwise all flora would die, but the corruption takes everything. It drastically changes only that which is not ruled straight by instinct anyway. It has no meaningful effect on those things. What is it, though? And WHY does it exist?"

I feel as if there is a little piece I am missing. One tiny bit of information which would make sense of everything that is happening.

A growl makes me freeze.

The Hunter previously chasing me is walking towards me. I foolishly believed a soundproofing spell would be enough to allow me to sneak through. Right here, at the only other staircase leading down, I get caught.

"A bad Hunter chases his prey. A good Hunter lies in wait where his prey has to go," I mutter, watching the Corrupted with newfound respect.

The Hunter smiles, takes a deep breath...

...and HOWLS.

Several howls answer.

None are coming from upstairs, so I go into full hunted mode and obey blind panic.

Fourth floor. Fifth floor. Library.

The Hunter is toying with me, swiping at my legs and sides. Easily running circles around, but while I offer him the thrill of the chase he doesn't kill me or mate with me.

Broken bathroom. Stairs up. Attic.

Tripping over the last small stair leading to a wooden attic, I brace myself against being dragged back down. My defiant stare at the small square of an open trap door leading up here in unanswered.

Nothing.

"Haaah haaah haaah," I wheeze, unable to do more, while waiting for claws to seize me.

Still nothing.

A floorboard creaks behind me.

"Fu-" I turn, expecting the Hunter.

I look up... and up... and more up...

Words elude me, and my mind goes completely blank.

The dark purple, alicorn-sized, bat-winged Protector is standing above me, staring at me firmly.


	12. Heart Of Equestria: Bastion

My mind is overloaded.

For one, there are the Hunters behind, well - under, me, threatening to get up into the attic any second.

Next, there is the Protector responsible for saving me in the library inside the small room with me, and he does not look friendly.

HOWEVER, my eyes betray me and slide around the room not in an attempt to find an escape route, but to drink in the crazy old artefacts lying around.

I can identify some patterns and items, at least my constant reading was useful for something. There is a century-old full plate Nightguard armor being worn by a dress figurine. A tarnished, yet rust-less halberd from the pre-corruption era. Some jewels adorned with gems and crystals from the famous and lost Crystal Empire. What catches my attention the most, however, is a small leather-bound book portraying a symbol of the sun on its cover.

A floorboard creaks under the Protector's weight. I twitch, whine, and try to look small. It's not a conscious effort, the Protector is just too big, too menacing, and his presence too spirit-crushing. I know how fast he can be. I know how strong he is.

In his presence, I know better than any time before how insignificant I am.

"AAAH!" a stab of pain follows a literal stab of Hunter's talons through my hind leg.

Too many things happen too quickly.

The Hunter pushes himself through the trap door to bite my impaled leg and drag me down. The Protector's front hooves turn to talons, and he grabs the halberd on the floor. The weapon lenghtens and its blade grows, strenghtened by black taint coming from the Protector's grasp. He lunges past me, stands up on his hind legs, yanks the Hunter up by his mane, and hacks the flailing Corrupted in half.

Yes, I am dumb enough to stare straight towards the shower of blood in utter amazement and horror.

"Ow, damn!" I curse, wiping the mess off my face. It's not too helpful, as I now get a clear sight of the Protector. My head fails me just like in every crisis situation, and I return to the habit of rambling incoherently, "I know you don't want me here, what with the territory thing. Trust me, I don't want to be here either. I just wanted to get help for princess Luna so that she didn't end like, well, you."

"Hmmm?" he looks at me, question in his eyes.

Work, work, WORK! Stupid brain.

He looks like a really big batpony, well - a corrupted one, so I take a wild guess about what I said.

"Princess Luna?"

"Hmmm..." he glares.

"Well, yeah. She's in danger, if she's even still alive. You... I mean the other Corrupted are attacking her in the throne room. She's awesome and super strong. Plus really nice, she even remembers who I am, but it's only a matter of time."

"Hmph!" he huffs meaningfully, and starts rummaging through the pile of things in the back of the attic. I catch myself staring at the firm rump and the large, heavy, swinging testicles.

"Mares... mares... mares. Don't shame your dead family even more by being into stallions!" I try to stop myself ineffectually, and look closer at the set of plate armor. Still, I sneak a peek at the Protector's bulging muscles every so often.

So, going back down is suicide. At least this guy doesn't seem to want to rip my head off.

"Hmmm," every part of the armor is clean, although not oiled, and it is the really heavy kind used by war chargers in the old days. Today it is more important to be agile, because Corrupted can swarm you easily and no amount of protection will help, so full sets of plate mail are almost never used. A set of silver guard tags which read "Bastion" hangs around the dress figurine's, right - ponnequin, neck, "Is your name Bastion?"

He gives me a quick look when he hears the name, but returns to his business immediately.

I'm not touching the halberd, especially since it looks now to be half-made of the corrupted biomass.

The book with the sun, however...

I gasp, and my head spins as I open the front page.

 _To my dear sister Luna,_

 _The Golden Legion left Canterlot four weeks ago, and today we can finally see what we call "The Barrier". The resistance of the local Corrupted hive is beyond all expectations, but the best of mine, Chrysalis', and your forces are truly the champions among our ranks. Many of us are wounded, but our losses are minimal. We hope to cross The Barrier tomorrow and destroy the root of this so-called corruption._

 _I have many theories, but very little actual proof about what I believe is hidden there. If I am correct, however, then there is a high chance the encounter will pose a deadly threat even to me. In case we fail, I am sending general Bastion back with information we have gathered during our march. I have to cipher this journal's contents, as it contains the methods we used to successfully survive in this hostile territory, and were it to fall into... the wrong hooves, it might destroy your chances of dealing with the Corrupted as well._

I turn the page, drop the book, and clutch my head.

"ARHG!" chaos of images, words, colors, and sensations ends my perception of the world for a moment.

Thankfully, I am just confused, not hurt.

"There's no way I can break a magical cipher like this," I mumble with absolute certainty, "Princess Luna might, since it is meant for her eyes. Her sister... Celestia, was it?"

Making the not-so-wild assumption that the Corrupted Protector used to be a member of the legion led by princess Celestia to eradicate the Corrupted, I look for a place to pocket the book.

"HMPH!" Bastion finally finishes his search, and throws something to me, something heavy and made of steel.

The final part of the plate armor - the helmet. Complete with the sliding visor, rotten and withered plumes on top, and everything. With one leg, he picks up the ponnequin wearing the rest of the suit, and it ends on a heap in front of me as well.

"Wait a minute..." I look at it with dread, "You can't-"

"Grrrrwr!" he points towards his wings, then to the old Nightguard insignia on the breastplate, and salutes.

This can't be real.

"Look, I think I can guess you want to save princess Luna or something, but there's an army down there. A QUEEN is there!" I shake my head, "I can't even wear that, it's too heavy, I-mmph!" the helmet lands on my head and the visor slides down, "I'm not a fighter! I'm not useful! JUST LISTEN!"

With surprising care and precision for somepony so huge, he tightens the straps of the legplates so perfectly that they fit even me. For a second, I ponder why a Nightguard helmet has a hole for a horn AND fits me fairly comfortably, and then my fear gets the better of me.

"Come on, I'm not a hero! I'm so tired I can attack Corrupted at best by fainting at them," I sag under the weight of the chest and back plates, "I CAN'T DO ANYTHING!"

Meaningfully, he puts princess Celestia's journal into the saddlebag hanging on the side of the suit of armor.

I can barely keep balance in this heavy thing. Every movement threatens me to keel over...

...which is exactly what happens when Bastion pushes me gently backwards.

Clanking like an overturned trolley of cutlery, I roll down the attic stairs. The padding of the armor is so ridiculously well-done that I barely feel the impacts.

Bastion lands like a cat on three legs straight above me, one of his front ones grasping the halberd.

"Wonder what training would I have to go through to get a stomach like that," I roll from under him, and shakily get up.

Four Hunters are approaching.

"I guess heroes aren't born... they are just normal guys with nowhere left to run."

Bastion cleaves through the two foolish enough to jump at him head on with one swing, and impales the third one with his free talons. When I trap the last one in a second-long antigravity spell, stopping his lunge at the big guy from behind, he crushes the attacker's skull with his hind leg, and smiles at me proudly.

"I get it, I get it," I grumble, "There are hundreds more of them downstair, though, smartass."

He doesn't look bothered. Too bad, I am crapping myself.

Crapping myself while we DO NOT sneak down, but casually walk, completely without any respect for the horde under us.

Crapping myself while Bastion throws a Corruptor out of the window, and the creature of living corruption squirms, trying to find a shape allowing it to survive up there and failing.

"Cool," I whistle as the Corruptor explodes into a black shower, "They can't handle heights, and if they are forced to stay up high then Corruptors lose the ability to keep their cells together."

Still crapping myself as he methodically cuts his way through any opposition while I simply shove the ones getting to his blind spots away with magic, or cast a quick shield spell to deflect an unexpected bite.

I am mostly being ignored, as the Corrupted know who the real threat is, and the few trying to flank us get a taste of Bastion's unearthly agility and weapon skill. My armor is enough to protect me from a furious Hunter until Bastion slices his head off with his wing.

My presence is taxing him, that is clear, because while I can save him from an unexpected attack or two, his having to get Corrupted away from me is taking toll on the huge body.

Huge body with bulging muscles, sweat-drenched coat glistening in the torchlight, and the posture of somepony filled with absolute confidence and conviction. He isn't just a bulk of overgrown muscles, he is... perfect. Somepony I both wish to be and to be with.

"Huh?" I stop staring at Bastion's heaving chest when the Corrupted retreat, "This LOOKS good, but I like it even less now."

"Grrrr..." he looks around, sniffs the air, and nods.

Our trek to the throne room is clear, with only the distant moaning and shuffling of Corrupted doing Corrupted-y things making my mane stand on edge. The throne room itself, however, is filled with the sounds of growling and chaos. We enter a scene of what should be wild combat, but feels like a theatre play.

Princess Luna is sitting in the middle of the long room, barrier of blue flames protecting her from the Corrupted around. The spell feels weird, not like magic, rather something more - reality bent by a powerful wish. Maybe something native only to alicorns? I know for sure I have not seen anything like this before.

The survivors of the first attack, who must have returned through the hidden entrance, are holding a line against Corrupted trying to charge them over and over. They aren't causing much damage to the attackers who seem to be killing time rather than trying to break through,

The Queen is watching them with amusement, accompanied by dripping forms of Corruptors, and a male Breeder with his muzzle shoved deep in her nethers. The Breeder's ears perk up as the Queen turns to us, and he walks away behind a nearby pillar.

"Yep, they were waiting for us," I bite my lip.

"Heh heh heh," the Queen chuckles. Tendrils shoot down from the ceiling, entangling one of the defending ponies instantly, and swinging him towards her. The Queen's jaw... and chest... splits...

My mouth drops open.

The Queen entire front opens, revealing a mass of tentacles inside which envelop the unlucky stallion, shoving themselves into any orifice they find. Accompanied by his muffled screams, the Queen's outer layer closes around him, leaving only the devourer herself. She opens her eyes and licks her grinning mouth.

The four Corruptors surrounding her turn to puddles, and disappear. In the same instant, black rain comes down from the ceiling all over the throne room. The ponies look up when the black substance, as if having a mind of its own, slips down their throats, noses, and seeps through their skin. I can't avert my gaze from the ponies willingly throwing away their weapons and presenting themselves to the Corrupted.

The rain falls down, leaving only princess Luna's protective bubble, and me hiding underneath Bastion's wing untouched.

"FLEE, GET TO PONYVILLE!" I hear princess Luna's scream, just as I get flung out of the throne room.

The Corrupted howl, roar, and the horde's hunt for us begins.

"I can't outrun them in this thing!" I plead. My legs are like noodles, yet somehow I am absolutely sure that Bastion will not save me if I stop giving it my everything. With how close the enemies are, I doubt it's going to matter.

The Corrupted batpony looks at me, and slaps his ears.

"What?" I wheeze, moving my legs as fast as I can. He doesn't answer, just takes a long and deep breath.

For once my brain pretends to be useful, and makes me slam my hooves into the helmet's earholes.

The ultrasonic bat screech shatters all the windows in the long hallway and makes me beg for death. Thanks to the warning, though, I'm not in as bad of a shape as the Corrupted. Excellent hearing CAN be a disadvantage. A quick glance backwards reveals collapsed black shapes, clawing and pawing at their heads in utter agony. That will not last long, though.

"-" I say, but can't hear a thing over the ringing in my ears.

One thing is clear - we have to escape, but where?

"-"

I must be muttering to myself, it's too strong of a habit.

Considering the previous trap near the Ponyville tunnel, I'm sure the Queen knows we would want to go there. So, since the entire hive is on the lower floors, we could go up, but then what?

I pat Bastion's back and point towards the staircase leading up. My legs burn with objections to what I'm planning to do, but it's either this or...

You know? After seeing the Corruptor-esque Queen leading this hive and having my stomach revolve so fast it could generate electricity, I think I'm gonna pass the offer of one final mating. Luckily, the old tunnels leading from Canterlot city sewers down the mountain and then to Ponyville SHOULD still be safe-ish.

Time for a leap of faith.


	13. Heart Of Equestria: Never Surrender

With Bastion's wing wrapped tightly around me, I am half-dragged, half-running up four flights of stairs again. It's happened far too many times today already, and I am on the verge of throwing up and just lying down on the floor to wait for the end.

What would it change?

Nightshade must have gotten to Ponyville during our first flight through the castle, and the rescue force has to be massing in order to save at least princess Luna. Even if that is not the case, then what can a single pony, especially sompeony like me, do? To be completely honest, what can even a titan like Bastion do in a situation like this? Canterlot is lost, and it is only a matter of time when the Queen breaks through princess Luna's protection. Perhaps I should have waited with the few wounded in the east wing.

No, I need to get princess Celestia's journal to Ponyville no matter what happens. From what I've read about the expedition, she did not have that many ponies with her, but they still managed to get across half of old Equestria with, at least according to the journal, minimal losses. These days we consider an organized force of twenty Corrupted a deadly encounter, and WE are the ones who should have years of experience in dealing with the enemy.

Passing by the library again, I long for the boring and depressing life of mere hours ago. However, the heat of Bastion's sweating muscles pressed against my side burns away the memory of loneliness. He is a soldier who survived the effects of corruption, although not without a sacrifice. He has been protecting Canterlot for a century following his return home ALONE through territory after territory of hostile Corrupted just to deliver a journal which may or may not contain something valuable. All that only thanks to the burning desire to protect.

And I wanted to get into the Hex Guard just to earn a modicum of respect and possibly some tail. No wonder I failed over and over. The harsh training has never been about building muscles or endurance, but about testing one's drive and willpower to never give up while going through it.

As far as I know, the journal might not change anything now that there are too few ponies to actually retake and hold any bigger territory, but I owe it to all the guards whose image I tarnished by my stupidity and mere presence to deliver it.

I don't matter. The agony of my legs and crushing exhaustion don't matter. If I have to die, then it will be only after I can say - I did everything I could.

We end up inside the breached bathroom, and I once again pray that my suit of armor is as good as it seemed until now. Bastion understands when I point to the hole leading into the thick drain pipe, wide enough for two normal ponies, and his black coat hardens, transforming into a replica of the Nightguard armor I am wearing.

"Alright, I'll go first and see if there is anypony do-whoa!" he sweeps me off the floor into a tight hug of legs and wings, and jumps into the hole.

The snarling of Hunters chasing us is cut off by rushing air.

Thankfully, the pipe is not just a straight hole in slick concrete, but rather a slide, although one admittedly leading far more down than a stomach would find comfortable.

An impact.

Water in my helmet.

Can't get up in this thing.

Can't breathe.

Dragged upwards.

Coughing.

Thankfully, since Canterlot is a dead city, the sewers underneath are mostly unused, and the water is crystal clear, coming from a well somewhere inside the Canterlot mountain. At least dying of dysentery later is out of the question. I don't know the layout of the sewers, but I know what direction leads towards the mountain. If we get to some dead ends there, we just need to go along, and eventually we should find one that leads to the waterworks. As I take a step to leave, Bastion stops me, points to the hole in the ceiling, and starts counting on his talons.

One, two, three.

He holds his halberd firmly, the spike on its top aimed straight into the hole.

A Hunter comes down at such speed it skewers itself on it. Bastion crushes the corpse with his hind hooves, absorbing the Hunter's mass into himself.

"Heh heh heh..." he snickers.

"Creepy, but effective, I guess," I croak, dry throat burning from my irregular breathing.

Bastion looks reinvigorated by the deed, making me slightly jealous of my desperate need to eat, sleep, breathe, and some other vital things. Scratching noises from above tell me that more enemies are coming, although at a much slower pace now. This is our best time to lose them, so I fight through my splitting headache, and conjure a sound-dampening bubble around both of us. Complete soundproofing is out of the realm of possibility for me now, so this will just have to do.

During the next half an hour, black and yellow spots stop appearing in front of my eyes, and my lungs only hurt now, not burn with the anger of a supernova. Things look up as we finally reach one the waterworks inside the Canterlot mountain. The tunnels are still shored up from the mining operations which had been going on here some thirty years ago. These days, all mining is done under Ponyville because these sewers were too easy to drop into from Canterlot city, and we lost too many mining crews.

Not that I was alive in those days, but reading DOES have its advantages.

Thankfully, now I can finally overcome my objections to drinking sewer water, because it turned to a mountain stream, if only by name. Excellent! Now I am only starving and exhausted, but not completely parched.

"If I remember my history correctly, then there should be mining shafts leading down the mountain to its base. Some of the old Ponyville-Canterlot tunnels join the main tunnel we use today, but those entrances are sealed. There are others which lead to the vicinity of the enclave, though."

Bastion sniffs the air and looks at the ceiling. Chill runs down my spine.

"No... please no... not again..." I whine as black drips moisten the rocky ceiling, "THEY CAN MOVE THROUGH A MASS OF SOLID ROCK?!"

With the first of the alicorn-like Corruptors forming in the shaft, Bastion gets serious and puts me on his back. I get the feeling that even he believes we are outmatched.

He is right.

The Corruptors give us no chance of retaliation, as they fuse with the shaft's walls and their progress is shown only by thick black veins quickly closing in on us. Biting my lip and holding Bastion's halberd while my other front leg is wrapped around his neck, I scream as a thin arm with razor-sharp talons comes from the black vein and swipes at us.

"LEFT!"

His reflexes are still top-notch, and he fluidly dodges the blow. The Corruptors move through solid matter faster than we can run, though, and the attacks start coming from all directions.

I cough out blood, as a barrier I quickly conjure while Bastion avoids a different blow shatters from an attack from the ground.

We enter a cavern with veins of crystals and metals ending in a tunnel leading upwards. Heavy duty mining had to be going on here before the operations were stopped, but some of the equipment is still lying around. In the light of my horn, this place should be a beautiful sight. Tears well in my eyes, however, as I come too close to the breaking point once again.

The Queen is in front of us, two Corruptors by her side, and two more forming out of the shadows of the tunnel we have just left.

"Shiffffty prey," her hissing voice makes me tremble, and she looks at Bastion, "Fake... pretender... to be one of ussss. Useless..." giving me a lidded gaze and licking her lips, her expression brightens, "You, however... are interessssting. I sssense your desire... deep down. You wisssh to embrace me, to become more than you are... to gain endless pleasure. Sssso pent up... soooo deliciousss. Bow down to me... and I will reward you..."

I wonder how it would feel to have the Queen open like a bodysuit and engulf me, how it must have felt to the pony she devoured in the throne room. Even the Nightguard mare in the library seemed in complete bliss when the Corruptor melted her from the inside.

"I can feel... you thinking..." she hisses again, "I will transssform you into a part of me... and feed you the alicorn..."

"Princess Luna is still alive?" I can't help asking.

"Tough... resistant... draining her power will be a feasssst."

"And the others?"

"My... hive..."

The two words confirm my fears. It is just princess Luna, me, Bastion, and possibly the wounded locked away in the east wing left. Near the exit leading upwards, I notice a red, wooden barrel. Thank stars for easily-recognizable color coding.

"Bastion," I whisper, knowing the Corrupted Protector's hearing, "Get the journal to Ponyville, will you? When it begins, rip the bag off my back and run towards the exit."

Having access to the restriced part of the royal library had its advantages, namely allowing me a peek into kinds of magic nopony should know. The theory, to be precise, of blood magic and necromancy, and where they draw power from. There are no souls of the dead to call upon, but there is enough blood inside me to channel into energy.

"From the corners of the world, I summon the four guardians," I pronounce clearly. Chants and mantras are unnecessary, but they help less-skilled wizards focus. Here comes the difficult part. Self-preservation instinct, please don't stand in my way now!

Finally determined to do something useful with my life, I impale my leg on my horn, successfully cutting an artery and stopping only when my horn scrapes the steel armor on the other side.

"Earth," four pillars of risen ground crush the Corruptors against the ceiling. They start reforming quickly, but that is not my concern.

"Ice," the Queen freezes in a thin block of ice which cracks immediately, but seconds are all I need... and have left, at least if the blood squirting from my leg is any indication.

"Wind," a burst of compressed wind shoots the recovering Queen away.

The last one is only a whisper, because my vision is nearly black.

"Fire," a roaring flare shoots from my cut leg straight towards the red barrel which is doubtlessly filled with explosives used for razing tunnels.

Hey, I am not completely stupid. The scorching heat burns my leg, cauterizing the wound and leaving black marks on the steel armor.

The Queen can take me if she wants, but Bastion and the journal will have a chance to-

"BLRBHFLT!" I turn from a unicorn standing still, well - wobbling on the spot, into a grey blur crushed by instant acceleration.

A second later I get singed again by the ball of fire I shot as I speed PAST it and into the tunnel.

Did I miss the earth-shattering kaboom?

Aaaaah... here it is.

Before the shockwave hits, a pair of legs and wings wrap around me once again, saving me from becoming marmelade in the steel can of my platemail. The tight ball of Bastion and me gets shot at a meteoric speed upwards the collapsing tunnel, crashing through a trap door into a large cavern.

Large... carpeted... cavern?

I could ponder about ponies and Corrupted around us, staring in shock. I could also ponder about the black alicorn immediately coming from the cavern's shadows. Last, but not least, I could ponder about the narrowed yellow eyes as big as I am belonging to an enormous scaly head.

All of those would be excellent and smart choices.

So, it makes complete sense that I do none of that, and throw up inside my helmet while passing out on the carpet due to hunger, bloodloss, and complete exhaustion.

Hey, at least the visor sliding up prevents me from drowning in my own vomit. The old blacksmiths sure knew how to make a good suit of arm-


	14. Heart Of Equestria - End: How did she-?

_"Wake up!"_

The whispered order is accompanied by my body jerking upwards without any input from my brain. Opening my eyes proves to be a bad idea, because it only allows dark spots dancing in front of me to make me sick again. Thankfully, somepony must have taken my helmet off, as I am now breathing heavily, messy and sweaty brown mane glued to my muzzle.

"Blrbl- urk!" I smell of vomit. Putting a hoof to my mouth to keep at least something of my long-forgotten breakfast inside me only serves to put me off balance. My slow fall to the side is stopped by an invisible grasp of magic. I barely have enough strength to raise my head up to see a black horn casting soft, pink glow reflecting off my armor.

The horn belongs to an alicorn mare of black coat, not the darkness of refined ink, but the kind of black of clothes washed too many times. Still, black is black, even if slightly shabby. The portrait of a bad fairy tale villain is enforced even further by a pair of glowing red eyes with slit pupils of a batpony, and both mane and tail bearing a darker shade of the same. She is a little smaller than princesses Luna or Twilight, which means just two heads taller than me, but where the moon princess is slim and the archmage slightly chubby, this alicorn could easily pass for a well-trained guardsmare. Her cutie mark makes me gulp. On the first glance it looks like a red rose with detailed black lines of the blossom, the real liquid dripping down the "petals" assures me that it is no flower, and that the delicate insides are what I've longed for and never gotten most of my life.

It is quite clear that she is the one holding me up.

I don't know how long I was out, but a quick look around shows Bastion shaking the remains of the mess I made out of my helmet, so it can't have been more than a minute. My heavily protesting body agrees.

"Sorry," I croak, barely able to make a sound. It really is a lovely helmet.

Sadly, said "quick look around" forces another, much slower look around followed by Discord-grade confusion and disbelief.

Ponies and Corrupted are around, either mating, cuddling, or generally chilling out. Granted, even the most innocent gestures like a pair of stallions, one corrupted and one pegasus, holding hooves nearby are accompanied by the black one's raging hard-on and the pegasus' rock-stiff wingboner. Still, while the living ponies look like they are in a dream, they don't present any characteristics of oncoming corruption, and the Corrupted, some buried balls-deep in their pony counterparts don't seem overly keen on spreading their curse. A cuddling mare and a stallion, both completely normal, are spooning each other while chuckling at Bastion's attempts at cleaning the piece of armor.

Aaah yes, the final little detail my mind tried to delay as long as ponily possible.

The entire large cavern's circumference is made of dragon. A weird expression, but the giant, winged lizard is coiled around to fit inside comfortably without bothering anypony. He is the only non-Corrupted who bears clear signs of the taint, but not to any major extent. His golden scales are covered with veins of darkness, he looks curious and amused, however, not wild.

"Ya awake?" I hear the alicorn mare ask, voice slightly screechy and playful.

Oh yes, along with the batpony eyes, she also has membranous wings. One couldn't look more over-the-top if they tried. Although, working among Nightguards for so long, I recognize the harmonics of her voice as true, and not as if somepony just tried to look bat-ish.

"Good," her tone grows deeper, "I love new blood to play with."

Now that I can focus a little more, her voice makes me shiver and pant as my whole body reacts to the hidden message of being drenched in sweat and drowning in sweet agony of endless rutting. I move towards her like a zombie, fatigue forgotten and tongue lolling out.

Bastions's quiet growling makes no difference to me. I [i]need[/i] her.

My unbidden telekinesis unbuckling each piece of my armor while I walk answers to my instincts rather than mind, and I can feel the growth between my hind legs. She is the mare of my wettest dreams, the one who could use me... use me... and use me... over and over like a living sex toy... robbed of any will... just serving for her pleasure.

 _"Will you introduce me to your Hex Guard mates?"_

 _"I like you more as a friend."_

 _"Thanks for the drink, but I really have to go."_

 _"You need to be at least THIS tall to get on my ride, if you know what I mean."_

 _"With you? Not on your life."_

 _"Keep dreaming, loser."_

And what then?

She's an alicorn, for stars' sake! She won't even feel me inside her if we try anything. What can I do, eat her out for hours? Then she'll get bored with me like every mare ever. I don't even want sex! I am a unicorn, I have magic to touch myself in a way other ponies can't... I just don't want to be alone.

I don't need a goddess who could make the entire world drool. I just want some pervy mare to cuddle with and experiment from time to time...

The memory of me falling asleep on Mana Burn's shoulder surfaces, and I breathe out a sad and slow sigh.

...and it doesn't even have to be a mare.

All desire and lust evaporate under the crushing weight of the knowledge that I betrayed everything my parents might have wanted by having a normal foal. Thank stars none of them got to live to see their son realize he is into both mares and stallions, but feels more comfortable about a colt.

"Anything stupid enough to want to stay with me would be fine..." I whisper to myself and sniffle.

As the grasp of telekinesis around me fades, I look up again to see I am not the only one about to cry. The alicorn is standing with her mouth open and eyes glowing, all that while shaking slightly at the sight of me.

"Not that my stupid wish matters," I mutter under my breath and curse my moment of weakness. It was easier to deal with this in the silence of the library. Now, however, surrounded by others, it comes down like a hammer, "Not even a Corrupted would touch me willingly."

"Ha... hahahah... haha," the alicorn starts laughing, but it feels like despair given physical form, "I am really shit at my job, aren't I, Vert?"

"You leave a lot to be desired, indeed," the gold dragon rumbles in answer, corners of his mouth curling up, "However, each one of us bears heavy and painful memories."

The alicorn leans down to me sitting down and feeling sorry for myself.

"You remind me of a... good friend. Do you know what he needed?" she puts a hoof under my chin and makes me look upwards, "A good rutting!"

I look at my crotch, still ready to go despite me not feeling like it in the slightest.

"Do you really want something like this, ma'am?" I am below average, that is all there is to say.

"I think I can find a better... partner for you," her horn flashes brightly, making shadows dance all around the cavern, "BASTION, GIVE IN TO YOUR DESIRE!"

I am grabbed, roughly pushed down, and entered from behind. Tears streak down my eyes from the pain of being stretched like never before. I can barely breathe with one muscular leg tightly wrapped around my neck, and Bastion's teeth are biting the back of my neck so hard I gasp in agony. I am just a sleeve for the Corrupted, something to be filled. It doesn't take long for me to push back against his thrusts, and turn my head to start sucking his three tentacle-tongues wriggling down my throat. I couldn't be happier.

So... this is what I was missing. Somepony truly wants me.

Corruption be damned, pain be damned, this is worth it!

Waves of heat fill me from behind and the front, choking me as I try to gulp down everything Bastion releases. Surviving the tide without drowning seems to take forever, but just a while later I am once again lying on the carpet, strong legs and wings wrapping me in a tight cocoon with Bastion gripping my neck with his teeth.

I should fall asleep, spent after a day of complete stupidity. My head, however, decides that this is a good time to finally start thinking. Maybe it is the lightened load of no more self-loathing or worries. I found somepony who wants me, and it won't take long before I am a crazy beast locked in eternal submission to him. I feel lighter than ever before...

...and there still is a me who can feel all this.

My mind is working just fine, better than ever, actually.

"Hmmmm," I examine what I can, careful not to unwrap myself from Bastion's tight hug. Nothing has changed, and the only signs of corruption are what I suffered after meeting the Breeder.

"Grwrrr..." Bastion grumbles at my movement.

"Oh shush," I can't help smiling to myself.

"I feel like this is a good time to talk," the alicorn mare sits nearby, giving me a good look at her wide and toned rump, "How about it?"

"Anything, ma'am. Can I ask something first, though?" she nods, "How did you know I was... weird?"

"You mean bisexual with heavy preference for stallions?" this time I nod shyly, "I can see into the darkest wishes of ponies, and your inner self screamed for help."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Forget the titles, my name is Joy, the giant but cuddly gold dragon is Vertradict, and the ponies are the Cult of Lust, my little fanclub. The Corrupted get here from time to time too, but they have no real power here, so I let them and the ponies mingle. None of them really want to leave. How about ya?"

"Bound Tome, ma- miss Joy," my curiosity goes through the roof, "If you don't mind me saying, I thought the only alicorns were princesses Luna and Twilight Sparkle. Queen Chrysalis comes close, but she doesn't count."

She scowls at the mention of princess Luna.

"I am the alicorn of Lust and Desire. There should be several more of us, but aside from your 'princesses' we don't appear in public much. Especially these days, what with most ponies being long gone."

"How come there aren't more ponies asking for refuge, this close to Canterlot? Or, you know, Corrupted trying to transform them. The old city is completely lost to us."

Her pointing hoof encircles the cavern.

"This place isn't real. It takes the location of an empty cavern on top of Canterlot mountain, but is a pocket dimension with fewer entrances. The two of ya got shot through one of them."

A little dimension where rules are as its owner wants them to be, a feat of magic not even the legendary Starswirl the Bearded could perform. It must be something to do with the inherent power of an alicorn. As I stare around in wonder and amazment, Joy continues:

"Speaking of which, why were ya pretending to be a shot bullet?"

"You don't know what is going on in Canterlot?"

"Not really, Luna can go eat a shit biscuit for all I care. She took what mattered to me, so why should I give a damn when her world falls apart?" she stares at me defiantly. Strangely, I can feel she is trying to persuade herself more than anything.

I recount what has happened to me on this bad, very, very bad day. Sadly, Joy says she can neither decipher the journal for me nor get me to Ponyville.

"I know very little about complex magic, I just have a lot of power," she says, "You probably know more than I do."

"Heh," I smile bitterly, "I doubt I know anything that would impress and alicorn."

She leans to my ears, and rips one with her sharp fang. A shiver of pleasure mixes with the pain as I relive a second of the "roughhousing with Bastion" memory.

"Even the tiniest bit of love for oneself goes a long way," she whispers, "Trust me, I knew a pony who believed the same things you do."

"Ehm," Vertradict coughs, waking up several of the sleeping ponies, "If Luna is still resisting, we might offer assistance. Ponies losing another one of their ancient leaders would-"

"No," Joy says icily, "She brought this on herself. She could have moved to Ponyville colony, or whatever it is, and worked from there. Instead, she put hundreds of ponies into mortal danger by not pulling her head out of her stretched anus and pretending that Equestria still exists!"

Mentioning ponies in danger makes me shove Bastion's legs and wings aside, and groggily stand up, levitating all the bits of the plate armor I took off before.

"What are ya doing?" Joy raises an eyebrow.

"If I can't save princess Luna, then I need to get the journal to Ponyville. The Canterlot Queen and her hive are crazy strong, and the book is supposed to have some clue to dealing with organized Corrupted. They might be marching down the Ponyville tunnel already," I poke the purple, snoring Protector, "Bastion, up for some more running?"

"I believe saving Luna would be the wisest-" the gold dragon starts.

"VERT!" Joy barks at him.

"Joy... I believe I know you fairly well, and I know that by refusing a request for help you are hurting yourself rather than vindicating. I am going, whether you want it or not."

"So..." Joy hisses, "I'm going to lose another close one due to [i]her[/i]."

"No, this time you can be there yourself to help, a chance you did not have then. Do you really hate the princess's past deeds, or is the issue within your own inability to stop her."

I'm not sure who would win the fight between a gold dragon and an alicorn, but Joy's murderous glare tells me I might have a chance to find out soon.

Head, solutions, now!

Finished with putting my armor back on, I bow to Joy.

"I want to thank you for giving us sanctuary for a while, miss Joy, and I won't ask you to help the princess you so clearly hold a grudge against," a big mouth bites my neck playfully, "And I think Bastion thanks you as well."

Joy lets out a frustrated screech, and then growls at Vertradict:

"FINE... but only because a world of Corrupted would be boring beyond belief."

"Of course," Vertradict snickers, "Of course."

Never, EVER, would I expect to fly down the Canterlot mountain on a dragon's back alongside a Corrupted Protector and the alicorn of Lust, no matter the last one's annoyed grumbling.

It is a bumpy ride to say the least, though. Tendrils of flytraps shoot from the ground over and over in attempts to entangle Vertradict and drag him down. The dragon, however, seems adept at burning them with his breath before they can reach. Joy is busy shooting down those which temporarily succeed.

The gates of the castle are in shattered pieces, all protective magic drained away from the lower floors. Most of the Corrupted still have to be inside, but the wild ones inhabiting the wide castle courtyard first rush to us, and then quickly run away after a burst of Vertradict's flames turns a couple of them into charred lumps.

A howl comes from the inside, and I know the main horde will be coming soon.

"Princess Luna was being held in the throne room," I tell Joy.

"Then let me lure the army onto myself," Vert smiles, "I need a good exercise after the years of lounging around."

"Just be ready to come when I call," Joy pats one of his claws, "This can turn ugly fast."

We briefly spot the Corrupted streaming out of the main gate towards the dragon. We are crawling through the bushes under the first floor windows, however, and they don't go looking for us as they have enough of their own problems.

Joy leads the way, reassuring me again that she had to be around Canterlot castle for quite some time. Sneaking so close to one another, my muzzle is inches from her behind. She is doing that on purpose. I know it, and she knows that I know. A wet breath reaching MY behind tells me Bastion doesn't like me ogling the alicorn too much.

Bastion breaks the window I point at, and we jump inside. Luna is sitting in a meditating pose, blue flames of her barrier separating her from the Queen and the four Corruptors who have to be her bodyguards. Our entrance doesn't go unnoticed by both the Corrupted and princess Luna, whose eyes go wide with shock...

...and her divine shield fades as her concentration breaks.

The Queen's front splits again to engulf the princess. Bastion moves so fast that chunks of the floor shoot off his legs, and charges at her. Three alicorn-like Corruptors wrap him mid-run with tentacles coming from the floor, and surround him. I can't get to the princess in the armor fast enough.

I don't have to.

A see-through image of Nightguard armor appears on Joy's body, twin blades come out of each of her horseshoes, and she teleports between the Queen and Luna.

"Miss Dar-" Luna breathes out, still obviously not believing the situation.

"It's Joy now... Luna. Try not to fuck up again, you've taken far too much from me already."

Sadly, I can't listen anymore. The last Corruptor decides to have fun with me, and I doubt even this armor can protect me from his teeth, talons, acid, and tentacles. Too bad I can't use magic now that he considers me a danger. A brief moment of focusing my power is all it would take for a threatened Corruptor to part with a bit of his power to inflict horn rot on me. All I can do is dodge his blows, barely and only so often, survive, and occupy his attention.

The familiar drain of magic followed by pleasant shiver coming down my horn makes me drop on the floor and roll away, expecting to be a target of horn rot.

It's not me, however, but Joy.

The enraged Queen's black spit lands on Joy's head. The alicorn's eyes roll back, a squirt of liquid splashes on the floor behind her, and she screams in all-consuming ecstasy.

Aaaand now her horn is going to melt, she's going to go crazy, and the Queen will have a control over a corrupted alicorn.

"Huh?" I roll poorly, and the Corruptor kicks me towards the others.

"Trying to break the alicorn of Lust with pleasure? Ya gotta try waaaaaay harder, girl," Joy cackles like a madpony.

Bastion roars as tentacles of three Corruptors spear him from all sides. He doesn't relent in returning blows, though.

The Queen snarls, spitting black goo everywhere as Joy punches her, leaving two deep quickly-healing scars in the liquid-like face.

I notice something Joy must have overlooked. While the Queen seems to need a little time to recover from using the anti-mage disease, she is nowhere exhausted enough to prevent her from doing it again. This time on Luna, though, who is still recovering from her loss of concentration. Then she will have an alicorn to either command or devour for sure, and we will all become black milkshakes.

Intelligence is something allowing us to go against instinct. Horn rot is an instinctive defense against big concentrations of magic.

I am a unicorn.

"SHIELD YOUR EYES!" I scream.

The Queen turns her head to me just as I set off a magical flare, completely non-lethal, but filled with all magic I have left to be as bright as possible. The Queen's plans go up in flames as her body works against her to get rid of me in the best way it can.

Recoiling as her spit hits my forehead, I hope that two uses of horn rot will weaken the Queen enough to be destroyed.

That is my last coherent thought before all nerves in my body light up with paralyzing agony mixed with pleasure, and my magic melts my horn along with all control I have. My armor clanks on the floor again.

It is not enough.

Joy is kicking the Queen's ass, but Luna is too weak, and Bastion cannot handle three Corruptors for much longer, especially after the one toying with me joins in.

"VERTRADICT!" Joy suddenly screams, raises her horseshoe blade, and slits her throat.

Joy's blood floats unnaturally through the air, forming a barrier of red mist around her and Luna, and the wound closes.

"It seems that all alicorns of Lust have high affinity for dark magic," Luna chuckles weakly.

Bloody tendrils drag me and Bastion inside the barrier just as the gold dragon presses his big mouth against the nearest window.

"With pleasure," the dragon rumbles and takes a deep breath.

The fiery inferno turns the room of white marble into black conflagration of cracking masonry and melting golden decorations. The bushes outside turn into ash heaps in seconds. The Queen's scream is cut off with all oxygen around being burned away.

I lie there in the black pool of goo - the only remains of my unicorn pride. Princess Luna's hoof closes my eyes.

Voices, headache, leg-ache, everything-ache.

"Ouch..." I open my eyes, which is accompanied by several sets of hoofsteps coming closer.

"Now, that is quite the sight," says a voice I recognize as Nightshade's, making me turn my head.

This white, soft, and comfortable place has to be the Ponyville infirmary. Either that, or the afterlife is a definite upgrade from normal life. Princess Luna is lying on the next bed, waving at me weakly.

"She wanted to stay in the same room to see if you... when you wake up," Nightshade explains, "I think you impressed her quite a lot."

The Queen of Ponyville hive is accompanied by Chilly. A deep grumbled "Hmph!" nearby brings my attention to a statuesque Protector standing on watch by my bedside.

Wait, I knew he was there all the time. That's why I didn't go grasping for him in panic.

 _Bastion?_

He looks at me and salutes.

"Having more minds in one head takes a bit of getting used to," Nightshade smiles at me, "But I think that if somepony can manage then it is you."

"So... thirsty..." I croak, throat feeling as if swallowing sandpaper.

Luckily, there is a glass of water on the bedside table, so I levitate-

"Damn..." I curse, recalling I am not a unicorn anymore, just basically a weak earthpony.

Umm... why is everypony staring at me?

The desired glass of water is being held by black tendrils coming from a nearby wall. Ignoring the pain in my everything, I slap my forehead, hitting a horn. The mirror on the wall shows... a shiny, black protrusion coming from my forehead.

I stare.

The tentacles bring me my glass.

I stare harder.

"We..." Nightshade starts, stops, and just shrugs, "You know what? No freaking clue. As far as we know, this has never happened before."

"The journal?" I ask about the final thing.

"Princess Twilight is taking a look at it, and when princess Luna recovers, they will start deciphering it."

"Can I... Can I go back to being in the library?" I return to the only stable point of my existence.

"We are retaking Canterlot castle and the grounds around it. The Hex Guard can now do it, since Nightshade's hive is keeping Ponyville safe-ish instead. When the order is restored, then I see no reason why not," princess Luna's weak and tired voice makes me sorry for making her talk, "I see you have your own library guard now."

Bastion chuckles.

Nightshare walks around him, and then turns to Luna.

"Are you sure you know him?"

"I remember all thestrals under my wing, Nightshade, just as you know your Corrupted. I patrol their dreams and fight against their fears while they sleep. He might have changed, but general Bastion was my stalwart Nightguard during my sister Celestia's campaign against Corrupted. He was... one of my best, if not the best. All I wonder about is how he got to Canterlot."

"Then, will you allow me to look into his mind?"

"Don't ask me," the princess smiles.

Nightshade turns to me.

 _Are you okay with it, Bastion?_

A slight feeling of worry drowned by a great sense of duty flows through me. I nod to Nightshade.

Her eyes go wide, smile growing on her muzzle.

"Back when you still knew little about the Corrupted and did not let semi-corrupted ponies to live with the others, he was not allowed to return to Canterlot. He survived out there for years on his own, with his final duty as the light protecting him from turning into a wild beast, and when Canterlot fell he got inside through one of the secret tunnels. Nightguards chased him off, and he didn't want to hurt them, so he retreated... and eventually forgot anything outside of him being tasked to protect Canterlot and the journal," Nightshade bows deeply to Luna, "Your Highness, we in the Hex Guard don't joke in vain about your batponies being 'batshit insane' fanatics, but this... I bow to you for raising and training the best of the best."

For some reason, Luna looks at me and says:

"I know."

Silly princess.


	15. We Are The Land: Twilight's Entry III

We have Canterlot.

The sentence shouldn't make me so happy, but that's how it is. The city I was born in, the heart of Equestria as I remember it, and the beacon of hope visible from Ponyville. Day after day I visited the surface, only to watch the dead mountainside city and feel my resolve fail. Day after day, while I was teaching in the Ponyville school I hoped any story I could tell was even close to showing the foals how monumentally important the white city was. And day after day, it wasn't enough.

We have recovered, and are repopulating, Canterlot.

I know I should mourn the loss of fifty ponies during the fights with the wild Corrupted, but I am only a mare. When I saw the old tower which I spent my filly years reading books in, I knew it was worth it, and if somepony is not convinced, then I will just have to try harder to make them see. Sadly, not everything is as amazing as I make it seem. Canterlot is a dead city, no matter what we do. In the old days it used to be a home to hundreds of thousands of ponies. Now, every living pony could pick a building and live inside on their own without having to worry about any sort of housing crisis. We cannot even raise the population limit much higher, because Canterlot cannot feed more than a hundred ponies no matter what we do.

However, this may be able to save the few pegasi we have left. If they can finally fly outside without the threat of flytraps then we might prevent more suicides that culled the pegasi population after we lost the surface. Nopony can imagine how difficult it is to live without one of your most basic needs. Well, since Canterlot is mostly made of stone and concrete then the flytraps cannot simply grow there, and pegasi should be able to stretch their wings if they fly low. Not too surprisingly, many ponies are signing for relocation to Canterlot because they want to live under clear sky, and not in the crowded underground. We are going to lose some sense of community, but I believe we will also gain much more.

Note to self - with decreased population of Ponyville, we could transform more space into mushroom farms, and underground cultivation areas for crops. Plus, as we are able to recover more and more farmland around the town thanks to Nightshade's hive, we could populate Canterlot to a decent degree. All that remains is to order periodic scouring of town for Corrupted and the flora surrounding them for several weeks, and then secure the main gate of the city. The first time Canterlot fell, it was because we were surrounded and cut off with not enough supplies to feed the citizens. The following uprising and exodus of ponies through corrupted countryside into Ponyville left only a hoofful of them alive. This time we have underground supply routes, Ponyville mines and blacksmiths churning out equipment, and a fortress which can be attacked via only one, fairly thin mountain path.

Canterlot will not fall again!

To ensure that is not an empty promise, I am cooperating tightly with Queen Nightshade to find every weakness of the Corrupted we can use. She is worried we will use it against her, but we have never been the aggressors. If Ponyville hive stands with us, then we will stand with them in their time of need against anypony and anything which dares to pose a threat. I have never thought I would say that - but if Corrupted can be a part of the society, no matter on what level, then so be it. They are fascinating creatures with unusual thought patterns and habits. All in all, ponies, even the soldiers tasked with surviving danger on the surface, are gradually getting to accept the Corrupted roaming around Ponyville and doing their business, which generally is mating and finding food.

At first, it was only Nightshade's willpower and mental strength holding them at bay, but the big breakthrough came with some of our food-focused scientists' attempts at growing what they call "corrupted berries". I know, it is not an innovative name, but it serves its purpose. We tried to find a name which would fulfill the scientific naming conventions, but we couldn't understand the berries enough. As mentioned before, Corrupted are more plant, or mushroom, based lifeforms, but the ability to metamorphose their bodies to an unprecedented degree without the use of a horn or any other magic-focusing appendage says something different. I believe they can use magic, the energy in everything around, and transform it at will because they are made of it, at least partially. This theory is yet to be tested, but my observations lead me to believe that the Corrupted percieve mass, energy, magic, and possibly even divine power as one and the same thing.

The berries are the manifestation of that.

They are less a kind of food, and more a biochemical power source. I attempted to extract the energy using various means and store it in crystals, but all experiments ended with the vessel shattering. Either my means of transport are insufficient, or the power stored in the berries is much greater than our crystals can handle. If the Crystal Empire was still a place, I could order sets of minerals to experiment with and figure it out. Sadly, the crystals around Ponyville are sub-par at best. This might change when we resume mining operations inside Canterlot mountain, but that is still at least months away. The theory about the power in the berries being too great seems correct, however, as Nightshade explained that Corrupted can live months on single one.

Which leads us back to the cooperation topic.

The berries, for lack of a better word, seem to condensate the essence of life itself into a piece of "fruit". The mere presence of Corrupted in an area is enough to make it happen naturally. HOWEVER, our unicorn wizards quicky found a way to crystalize the berries faster. Since Nightshade told us the Corrupted were starving as well, we fed them some of the ones created by us. They proved to be a much less nutritional than the natural ones, but more than enough for Corrupted to gain more physical and mental strength. Now that they are well-fed, the Ponyville hive is much more willing to obey Nightshade, thus taxing her mind less and allowing her to imprint more rules for them to follow. The more interesting thing is that well-fed Corrupted hold much lesser need to spread, as they are not threatened by death.

The next two experiments were dangerous, but determined that we CAN trust the Corrupted around us.

When Nightshade told me the theory of possible extinction being the reason for uncontrolled cancerous spreading, we asked for volunteers to repeat Mana Burn's experiment. As they mated with several satisfactorily fed Drones, Hunters, and even Protectors, Nightshade followed the spread of corruption within the subjects, noticing the effects of taint being nearly nonexistent. I am not going to spread the information about it being mostly fine to have sex with Nightshade's Corrupted, but it is one less thing to worry about. A thing to note - only one stallion out of the volunteers wanted to mate with a Protector mare. Perhaps they can't handle not being in charge of such situation and under a strong mare's hooves.

The second experiment was mostly an accident, but one much more rewarding than the previous one.

One of Nightshade's rules of cooperation was to allow free access for her Corrupted to the entirety of the underground enclave. It was a tall order to prevent panic and violence, but we had little choice after the big battle. The Corrupted followed Nightshade's rules to the letter, which could not be said about our foals. Several got out on the surface through the open tunnels, and were found and returned by Nightshade's Hunters, who showed great pleasure in the chase. None of the younglings were tainted or hurt, so we allowed a monitored group to play outside. Of course, they eventually went to play hide and seek, so I asked the Nightshade to explain the rules to a Hunter.

The results were, as my long-gone friend would say, totally awesome.

Nightshade's Hunters suffered because of the peace treaty, having to venture outside of the hive territory to chase prey and satisfy their instincts. No other kind aside from Corruptors had such a problem, but Corruptors are weird to say the least. Protectors patrol the borders of Ponyville, Drones move stuff and do some things to plants we have yet to examine, Breeders are enjoying the lifted ban on sex with friendly Corrupted, and Nightshade suffers less headaches because of it. Hunters, however, were the issue until we gradually allowed ponies of all ages to spend their time outside. The possibility of playing chasing games, even if they have to limit themselves, is enough to keep the Hunters content. Our ponies are happier, although quite worried, to be on the surface, and the Hunters chase down those who wander too far away and lead them back. Everypony wins.

There is no way for wild Corrupted to understand what is happening in Ponyville, but those under control of an "understanding" Queen are proving to be a blessing in black and oily disguise. Also, happy Corrupted are more cooperative during long experiments. With Ponyville starting to thrive, I was allowed more intricate experiments on the kinds of Corrupted previously difficult to touch - Protectors, Corruptors, and Queen Nightshade herself.

Let us start with the simplest ones - Protectors. While the lesser Corrupted are mostly satisfied with mating and finding food, Protectors are purely territorial, and are never a part of a roaming group for long. In short, they need a territory to settle down in and protect, as the name we gave them suggests. While wild Protectors are limited to protecting only the area of their choosing, ponies turned into them can easily become the bodyguards of another pony or Corrupted whom they consider worth it. According to Nightshade, Protectors are the rarest kind of Corrupted, aside from Queens, due to the naturally high requirements on their mentality and physical attributes. My son Mana Burn is one of them now, and his participation in the experiments alongside the normal Protectors of Nigthshade's hive told us a lot about the differences between transformed Corrupted and the ones born naturally. First of all, the transformed Protectors cannot achieve the sheer size and physical toughness of their natural counterparts. However, as seen by Chilly destroying the Ponyville titan, size and natural armor come second to the higher intellect of the transformed ones. The smaller, and by "smaller" I mean up to the size of male alicorns, Protectors like Bastion and Mana Burn cannot break through a wall or withstand a falling meteor like a wild Protector shaped by a Queen to explicitly do so, but the remains of pony within them allow them to metaphorically outmuscle the wild ones.

The penultimate class of Corrupted are the Corruptors, and their research is a pain in the plot. From what little I have managed to find out they have no set physical form, little to no need for standard corrupted berries, and their mentality is completely different from the other Corrupted. To be honest, they feel like a totally different species. Since their bodies are much more moldable than that of any other Corrupted including Queens, they can move in yet unforseen patterns, like phasing through solid matter or inside ponies akin to a disease. Sadly, this means they are nearly immune to any physical damage, telekinesis, or magic causing kinetic effects. They are also non-reliant on common senses. They percieve the world via some sort of "aura" emitted by any living being, making masking spells completely ineffective against them. As for the food, when they get hungry they simply corrupt any matter nearby and absorb it. This includes plants, ponies, other Corrupted, liquid, and even rocks. In their feeding patterns they prove to be different from other Corrupted who do not attack each other unless ordered by a Queen or remaining in someone else's territory for far too long. While the mentality of normal Corrupted can be understood by basic instincts, that of Corruptors cannot. Their only desire is to spread corruption and cover anything which is not tainted yet. However, since they have no real will of their own, unlike any other Corrupted, they obey their Queen no matter what the order is.

The last but definitely the most terrifying class is a Queen. They are collectively insane, as Nightshade told me. They possess pony-like intelligence, but they are also pushed beyond its limits by the commands ingrained within the Corrupted hive mind - spread, breed, dominate. Without this obstacle, I believe it would be possible to strike alliances or communicate with hives on regular basis. However, the Queens are specifically instructed to transform ponies, an order which is becoming more and more prevalent in their minds, as if something was pushing them to aggressively find the last of ponies and taint them. A lock against cooperation like this, the rapid spread of the Corrupted without any previous trace of them, and their physical attributes are more of a reason to think that someone or something made the Corrupted with the sole purpose of annihilating ponies, and that said creator had the means to link every single Corrupted all over the world into one mind into which he put the instructions. Such power could only come from ancient alicorns or gods themselves, but none of this shows any marks of Discord's or Nightmare's modus operandi.

Well, back to the Queens. Despite being a class of their own, they seem to assume the major attributes of one of the other classes as well as their major skillset. The defeated Ponyville Queen was doubtlessly a Queen of Hunters, indicated by the structure of her hive, her reliance on overwhelming the enemy with numbers, and not the greatest strength or endurance. Nightshade is a Queen of Protectors, as expected of an ex-Hex Guard, and her natural desire not to increase her hive's numbers, but to strenghten every single individual in it. This leads me to believe she will never be able to use some of the more magic-like abilities of the Corrupted like ignoring physical matter and transforming the world with only the power of will. The Queen of Corruptors in Canterlot was her exact opposite, and I am beyond ecstatic for her to be gone and purged with fire. Her reported abilites make me think the Queens can empower Corrupted of their class somehow. I don't envy poor Bound Tome having to deal with the empowered Corruptors. For some reason I believe there is no Queen of Drones, because submissiveness is not in their nature by definition, but I imagine a Queen of Breeders to possibly exist as a broodmother able to estabilish and nurture a massive hive. Hmm... what would a Queen of Queens be like?

Now, the notion of Queenhood and spreading is definitely connected with motherhood. However, I see no reason for there not to be a possibility of a King Corrupted. None have yet been reported, though.

Getting this kind of information was only possible because I had one other reason to believe Corrupted can become allies - my mentor's notes currently being deciphered by princess Luna and the previously mentioned semi-corrupted unicorn by the name of Bound Tome.

Bound Tome and Luna have managed to read the first part of the journal, which is both chilling and hopeful at the same time. The exact methods written in it are beyond the scope of this entry, but during the march of Golden Legion, princess Celestia successfully captured and dissected many Corrupted, coming to some of the conclusions I did in my research with Nightshade. Since Celestia had no reason to be gentle in the experiments, she and her unicorns revealed a rather invasive way of breaking into the mind of the Corrupted...

...then she used it on her soldiers.

I can understand the despair which had driven her to do so. I saw the pony race dwindle into almost nothing. However, I would have never gone with the orders she gave her ponies. She turned her legion into Corrupted one by one, slowly and carefully preserving their minds while granting them Corrupted abilities. It wouldn't have worked with normal ponies, but the strong soldiers of crazy willpower went through with it, and evolved into something else. Celestia turned the Golden Legion into a Golden Hive, and set herself as the Queen, taking away any free will her soldiers may have had. It was the only way to cut them off of the hivemind gnawing at their resolve and sanity. I know the soldiers would have followed her to Tartarus and back even without the change, but... I cannot say I would have done the same. On the bright side, we are now sure that both Chilly and Bastion used to be the Legion's soldiers, and their skills and power give me tiny bit of hope that there are some more places protected by more surviving members.

The last thing - Joy and the Cult of Lust. After killing the Corruptor Queen, Vertradict and Joy retreated back to their pocket dimension, refusing any other request for cooperation. I cannot blame her, although I would like to. Joy used to be a batpony over two centuries ago, one of princess Luna's best Nightguards. How she became an alicorn is beyond me, but her reason for hating both Luna and me is crystal clear. On Luna's orders fueled by lack of information, I got involved in a fight between an insane archmage and Joy's lover, the alicorn of Hope. The archmage stole my power to bolster his own and kill him. Joy, however, should have been dead at the time, having been killed by the mage weeks before that. My only explanation is that her unexplained ascension to alicornhood allowing her resurrection left her with time to find out what really happened, and to become really bitter towards us. That, however, is a different story for a different time.

 _\- The Journal of Twilight Sparkle, entry 359_


	16. We Are The Land: Mrrwrm (True Queen)

"So, are you absolutely certain that none of your Corrupted did that?" asks Twilight Sparkle for the third time.

The tall, Corrupted Queen by the name of Nightshade rolls her eyes.

"Yes, yes, and yes. I know it's difficult to understand when you don't have absolute control over your subjects, but queen Chrysalis would already be looking for a different answer to why ponies are disappearing from Ponyville. She knows how hive minds dominated by a single ruler work."

The two have been debating the recent situation for half an hour without success. During past two weeks, several groups of farmers, mostly mares, have been abducted with visible signs of battle on each farm. No significant damage has been caused, but all more complicated tools, weapons, and supplies have been stolen along with the ponies. Neither Hex Guards nor the changeling Black Ops have found a thing leading towards explaining the events, so eventually Twilight Sparkle resorted to complaining to the only ex-pony capable of sufficiently defending the surface of Ponyville enclave - the slowly reconstructed Ponyville town.

Unfortunately, Nightshade could not feel any wild Corrupted in the vicinity of Ponyville, her Hunters and Protectors tasked with protecting ponies from hostile beasts raised no alarm, and Twilight Sparkle was far from happy, leading to the meeting currently going on in her office on top of the tree castle overlooking the regrowing town.

"All of the disappearances happened on the furthest reaches of Ponyville," the princess clutches at straws, "Could wild animals do this? A manticore or something?"

She knows it is nonsense, simple beasts don't steal equipment. Come to think of it, neither do the Corrupted.

"Look, Twilight," Nightshade is resolved to end this discussion, "The only Corrupted I can't sense are the ones transformed by princess Celestia and cut off from the hive mind. Even if it was a new hive settling in nearby, I could either sense their trespass into my territory or some of my subjects would. Us Queens are literally made to be able to feel and control other Corrupted, so I doubt I could somehow miss a wild pack running around and stealing both ponies and equipment. My best guess is that ponies did the abductions, and as such my Corrupted didn't bother checking it out. I can't really make such complex rules like which pony is and which is not a friend for them yet. My hive is growing smarter with each day, but making them into something even remotely resembling a society is going to take years."

"My little ponies understand how important it is to be kind to each other and cooperate to get through these years!" Twilight objects, "They would never hurt others!"

Nightshade facehoofs.

"Don't tell me you haven't lived through separatist groups trying to take over bits of land to create a domain they would rule? Come on, YOU teach little foals history down at the school. You taught ME when I was little. I know these things used to happen on monthly basis in the pre-corruption era."

"Well," Twilight hesitates, "yes, but that is what happens when ponies are safe and have time to think about the dark side inside them. If there is a good thing about the spread of corruption then it is that it forced us to work together tighter than ever before. The situation is still too dire for these things to happen, I think."

"Is it? For the first time in nearly a century it is possible to safely walk on the surface. The land around Ponyville is mostly unexplored, and there is enough food and weaponry being brought up from the enclave so that a group of power hungry maniacs could abduct ponies to be their slaves."

Twilight shakes her head.

"I doubt that is the case. We have lost ponies like this before, soldiers mostly, and it has always been due to Corrupted catching and transforming them."

"Well then," Nightshade says more aggressively than she wants, "I KNOW it wasn't my Corrupted and I am pretty sure no other hive or group is behind this. You FEEL that your ponies wouldn't sate their natural thirst for domination like this either. Wild animals wouldn't steal farming equipment and weapons. I guess the farmers just imploded into a tiny ball of joy and happiness, and got sucked through a black hole into the land of friendship where they play with their hoes, shovels, and ploughs."

"No need for that," Twilight frowns, "I just-"

"You just don't trust me enough to take my word for it not being any of US, but rather one of YOU!" Nightshade's tentacle tail cracks through the stuffy office air like a whip, "You have no clue what it feels like to have hundreds of minds in your head, and to have SOMETHING constantly nagging you to breed, kill ponies, transform everything into black goo and absorb it. I could have easily let Chilly or Mana Burn cut me off from the hive mind, but that would mean the Ponyville hive would go wild again and you would lose EVERYTHING! Instead, I have to constantly remind myself I at least USED TO BE a pony, and when it becomes too much I have to spend time with one of my separated guards to finally be ALONE. ALL THIS AND IT IS STILL NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?"

"Listen, I am sorry to put you in a situation like this, but it is all for my ponies-"

"WHICH I AM NOT ONE OF ANYMORE, IS THAT IT?" Nightshade takes a deep breath as the betrayed feeling slowly subsides, and gives Twilight a cold stare, "You wouldn't ask one of 'your ponies' to do this, but I am just some THING for you to use. Well, consider this as me giving up my equinity... princess," Nightshade's coat disappears completely, turning into a mesh of scaly muscles harder than steel, and her wings, the last memory of her being a pegasus, retract inside her body, "I WILL find out what happened to 'your ponies' and I will end the threat," she hisses, "However, now that I know how you feel about US, how NOTHING has changed aside from US, I won't help you like this anymore. If you ever want something more, then be prepared to pay a price."

Nightshade storms out of the office, leaving confused and terrified Twilight sitting and staring at the door slammed shut so hard they cracked.

"We are not welcome here anymore," Nightshade scowls at Mana Burn and Chilly who were waiting outside, "We are nothing but tools to be used against wild beasts ponies couldn't tame."

"My Queen," Mana Burn matches Nightshade's angry pace, "What did princess Twilight say? To be honest, I don't wish to leave my home."

"DO YOU THINK I DO?!" Nightshade yells at him, tears welling in her eyes. She wipes them off and watches the wetness glisten on her new... body, "It's fine. My rules are still in effect. Corrupted are still allowed unlimited access to the enclave, so you can do whatever you want. Chilly and I are going outside. We have assholes to hunt."

"Do you mind if I talk to... my mother?" Mana Burn asks shyly.

"You are free to do what you want," is the only thing the grey unicorn Protector hears before his Queen storms away, followed by the white Hunter.

"Oh dear," he bites his lip, "This can't be right."

The fresh surface air cools Nightshade down, making her reconsider her transformation. She knows she acted rashly, but that does not change the fact that Twilight does not see her hive as more than animals. The hard part being she is mostly right. However, this means no more experiments, no more pointless discussions, and no more worried glances her way when she is asked to work with ponies.

As the last illusions of her equinity shatter, Nightshade can finally focus on being what she really is. Twilight will help the hive get food in exchange for protection, that is given. Her Corrupted feel easier around ponies, as their constant bustling around allows them not to think about the original orders of transforming or killing them. For now, the evil voice in their heads is shut off by Nightshade's instructions, pony interaction, and the hive's biological needs being sated.

There is no reason to worry too much. The alliance is so beneficial for both sides that breaking it is out of the question.

Chilly and Nightshade reach the place of the last disappearances. Just like many times before, there are clear signs of fighting, but no larger amounts blood, most of the light farming equipment is gone, and there are no traces of the attackers. With Nightshade's corruption settling deeper into her, she is able to send her mind further and further away to scout for hostile Corrupted. There are several packs of the wild ones, but she can sense their fear and respect of her preventing them from entering the hive's territory. However, there are little sparks of will not too far away from the hive's territory she cannot invade, just like several inside the enclave - semi-corrupted ponies no doubt. Probably one of Twilight's scout groups.

"Mrmmmrmm!" Chilly grumbles in his "annoyed cat" tone.

"What?" Nightshade scans his mind without a result, being gently pushed away by his force of will. The separated Corrupted rarely let her inside their minds. Mana Burn prefers to speak so he can think of himself as a pony. Bastion does not hold any loyalty for Nightshade, and so she has no place in his head. And Chilly is just Chilly, her secretive Hunter.

He shows her a broken branch here, an imprint of a hoof in the mushy corrupted soil there, but there is nothing she can put in place.

"It's not like we have any better lead... or any lead," she looks skeptically at Chilly still set on following a trail of what could just be a natural decay of trees and signs of a pony wandering off for a bathroom break. She knows to trust a Hunter, though, in the matters of finding something or somepony.

After about two hours of following a trail completely invisible to her, Chilly finally leads her to a path cut through thick vegetation. Nightshade invokes a mental map of her territory along with current positions of her hive. Ponyville is to the north, there are several Hunters and two Protectors within ten minutes' march, and they have made a circle around the edge of the hive's influence.

"So, whoever did this knows how far my Corrupted can go, knows the usual search area of guards well-enough to cover their tracks, but not for needlessly long time, AND has a hideout set up nowhere near any of the places the attacks happened. If a Corrupted did this, then they have a Hex Guard training, a school education, and Twilight is a potato," a quick mental search shows her a group of semi-corrupted ponies to the south, "Are the tracks going that way?" she asks Chilly and points towards where she senses the group. The Hunter nods, "Yeah... some bastards made a base just beyond the borders of my territory so that they could quickly return to the vicinity of Ponyville, and be protected by my Corrupted in case something hostile came from further south. They know I instructed my hive to protect any pony, known or unknown. And since I prefer not to spread my influence, they are pretty safe. So, there is at least fifteen semi-corrupted ponies who know about our habits and are armed. There can be any number of ponies whom I can't sense there as well. Do we bring in the cavalry, or are you up for some serious practice?"

"Mrrmr?"

"No, there's no need to be gentle with them. After all, Twilight insisted none of her ponies did it," Nightshade smiles sadistically, "Kill, transform, fuck, or do anything you want to anypony who resists."

Chilly's front hooves transform into razor-sharp white talons, his tail twists and grows a scythe blade on its end, and his coat glistens with ice and rime, hardening into armor.

The semi-corrupted earthpony sentry outside of the entrance into a cave opens his mouth to scream when he spots Nightshade calmly walking out of the shadow of trees. Black tentacles shoot out of the ground underneath him and choke his warning by filling his throat full of black biomass as he takes a breath to call for help. More and more tendrils cover him, solidifying into a coccoon on the ground which melts, and is absorbed through a hoof into Nightshade.

The Corrupted Queen steps into a wide cave lit by several torches and glowing crystals. A bunch of normal ponies and semi-corrupted ones are either having their way with other beaten, bruised, and shackled ponies, just chilling, or enjoying an orgy around a black blob in the back of the cave which Nightshade recognizes as a female Breeder.

"Oh yeah, grow another hole, you monster bitch, one of the newbies wants to play!" an earthpony currently buried balls-deep into an orifice on the end of the Breeder's tail sucking and slurping his member laughs and slaps the Breeder's pregnant belly.

His smile freezes when Chilly and Nightshade enter. Some of the shackled ponies gasp.

"Hello, dear food," Nightshade's pleasant smile is mirrored by terrified whines and hurried grasping for weapons, "Your princess signed your death warrant."

A semi-corrupted unicorn mare in Hex Guard armor slides off of a chained earthpony, obviously tortured by being forced to stay hard for countless orgasms with magic, still dripping his seed and levitating a sword. Her eyes betray that what little mind still remains before going full Corrupted is set on defending her prey from anypony who would take it.

"Heh, if Twilight left you alone for a week or two more then I could just come and collect you all for my hive," the snort of contempt is answered by the attack of the, while tainted beyond saving, still organized ex-guards.

Fifteen semi-corrupted ponies and ten normal ones, especially with combat training, would never be afraid of an attack from two Corrupted. One of them being a Queen as the big balancing factor, they poorly split their focus and heavily misunderstand that Chilly is the real threat while Nightshade mostly defends herself, her Protector transformation giving her tenacity and toughness to withstand magic and bladed weapons.

Soon, anypony resisting or trying to fight is incapacitated. Despite having free choice, Chilly opted for the non-lethal, although painful and possibly crippling, attacks.

As Chilly watches the rogue guards for any attempt to escape or attack, Nightshade unshackles the farmers.

"Where is the equipment they stole?"

"I-I-I-In the back," a trembling stallion answers, pointing towards a pile of something covered with tarp, "t-those are loaded carts."

"Good. Get them ready for transport. You are going home."

"Thank- Thank you!" the stallion bows and loses balance before being propped by a mare next to him.

"Now..." Nightshade ponders, turning to the bandits, "Who was the 'newbie' who wanted to join you?"

One of them nods towards an earthpony stallion who cannot be more than twenty years old.

"So, you wanted to know how a Corrupted tastes?" she grins, sits down, and spreads her legs, "How about I enlighten you?" he takes few zombie-like steps forward as Nightshade channels her inner Breeder and releases weak mind-clouding pheromones. They wouldn't work unless the pony really wanted it. He does, and a moment later he buries his muzzle in her crotch, "Mmmm, good food."

"Look, we just got caught in our lust for a while," a nearby bandit pleads, "We'll bring the supplies back, help the farmers, take night shifts, just-"

"I don't care," Nightshade moans, pushing the choking stallion between her legs deeper, "Twilight was vehement that- ooooh..." the stallions entire head slides inside her, "none- none of her ponies would do what you did. Thus," tentacles shooting out of her marehood entangle the unlucky stallion pleasuring her, crush him into mush, and pull the entire corpse melting into black goo inside her, "you are not ponies. And since you are not my Corrupted either, you are my enemies."

Her bulging, muscular belly returns slowly to its toned shape as she licks her lips. Only then she notices the farmers staring and whimpering in terror. She gives them a defiant look:

"Grab your stuff and get out. I called Hunters to escort you to Ponyville. If you have any complaints about what I'm about to do, go thank your princess for it."

The cavern floor turns soft and swampy, sticky holes opening underneath each bandit. Those resisting get dragged inside by tentacles, those limp and defeated simply slide in. There is no difference in their fates, though. All of them will be decomposed to nourish Nightshade, her hive, and her land.

The tentacles, being generally nice horrible abominations, hold the farmers standing in the wrong spots steady so that they do not suffer the same fate.

Feeling the power flowing through her coat of muscles, Nightshade knows fully that by publicly doing this, her equinity is gone forever.

Not that she minds anymore.


	17. We Are the Land: Hai Ai em nyu heer!

The moldy grey corrupted landscape is illuminated by an eerie pink glow coming from an enormous shimmering dome in the middle of nowhere. Freezing wind whispers in the black leaves and turns the dark grass crunchy. Dark forms of wild Corrupted slowly walk around, reaching for black berries which are not too high up in the trees from time to time. Here up north the winter starts much earlier than everywhere else, and the crisp air reveals there is not much time before the blanket of snow covers the land.

Blurs move on the inside of the magical pink barrier, dampened sounds of music and life reaching outside here and there. The outside of the barrier, however, is far from lively. Deserted houses, inhabited by Corrupted looking for any shelter, farming equipment left lying around, broken and unattended, ruins of landmarks being reclaimed by nature is all that remains from the outskirts of the once great Crystal Empire.

No pony or Corrupted would ever bother noticing a black egg by the side of an abandoned house, slimy tendrils coming out of its bottom growing through both the mortar and soil.

The egg quivers. Impacts dent its surface from the inside. Over and over the invisible attacker hits its prison, making cracks appear all over it. The blows become weaker, but more erratic and faster. The top of the egg flies open, letting a black, sticky head peek through the hole and desperately gasp for breath.

"Blrlblrlbl!" the head shakes, three tentacle tongues licking the black goo off its muzzle. It sniffs the air around, then the egg, then the air again, and then bites a piece of the eggshell off, munching on it, "Mhmmm..."

This goes on for minutes, but the newborn Corrupted mare cares not for time, only for eating a hole big enough to allow her to get her skeletal body out. Her physique gives away a starvation a pony could never survive, but the longer she nibbles on the egg, the more mass she gains. When she reaches the size of a grown earthpony stallion, tendrils creep out of her hooves, and penetrate the ground and the egg, which liquifies and is drained into the mare's body.

When the egg is no more, completely absorbed by the new Corrupted, the only proof of what has just happened remains a dark, mossy green mare with bright green eyes curiously sniffing the short grass at her hooves.

 **Spread.**

"Mrm?" she looks around, ears twitching and turning.

 **Spread!**

She takes some dirt and throws it around in a bigger circle.

 **SPREAD!**

Her final attempt to understand the forceful voice coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time is her stretching her neck and legs as far as she can.

"Mmmm..." she rubs her leg as something snaps in it and sits down, sulking. The voice, however, does not stop twisting her mind to obey.

 **Devour!**

Sharp teeth rip off some grass for her to munch on. It doesn't taste bad, so she just walks around for a while, content with simply grazing.

 **DEVOUR!**

The voice in her head yells, making images of everything that is yet to be corrupted dance through her simple mind. Grass, trees, rocks, pretty and colorful four-legged creatures, other warm, soft and squishy beings, all has to become one in a perfect unity of a single mind and body.

So, she tries to obey and appease the voice to stop her head from hurting. From all that is supposed to be taken over, she can only find a piece of a stone windowsil. However, a rock is a rock, and as the voice said - devour!

As she chokes on the solid block, she has some time to ponder her instincts not being too beneficial to her health while punching her neck and twisting her strong tongues in order to dislodge the obstacle.

"BLEH!" the rock bounces off a wall, followed by the mare's angry grumbling, "Mrmrmrmrmrm!"

Is there a thing such as voicepalm? Because if there was, and the voice had hands, it would definitely be smacking itself repeatedly.

The mare, despite her strange behaviour, does not present any features specific to any kind of lesser Corrupted, but her straight posture and ability to wonder about her own instincts make her a prime candidate for a Queen. The voice, having failed its attempts so far, turns to what this Queen might be after all - a Breeder.

 **Breed.**

The mare moans as her body shivers in pleasure, and her thoughts are rebuilt to find somepony and something to make her feel like this again. Sadly, she does not understand the whirlwind of unknown pictures of creatures in various positions overwhelming her simple thoughts.

"AH!" she finally makes at least a little sense of things. Now to find the correct candidates for making the voice quiet down. She walks without any real direction through the landscape dotted with ruins.

One of the bright four-legged things wrapped in a hard, grey, shiny shell is lying on the ground, motionless.

 **Breed!**

The anger from afar connected to the order makes her increase her pace. She feels scared whenever the distant influence forces her to do something, so she tries as hard as she can to stop it. However, she finds a possible solution, and allows herself a triumphant smile.

A rock! Not the one that tried to kill her, but a new one, non-hostile one.

Now, as the images showed her - orifices were involved. To the voice, rocks and ponies were the same, insignificant "things". This gave her a way to solve the situation to everyone's satisfaction. She will breed the things, and the voice will stop yelling.

"AH?!" the hard and shiny part of the four-legged thing's head falls off, revealing long, soft strands of mane. In blind panic, she spits out sticky liquid on the head in her hooves, and shoves the metal part back on. SAVED!

Not worried about the anger of the voice anymore, she examines the four-legger. Since the rock has none, she examines the soft thing's orifices. The front ones wouldn't do, as the images showed, so she has to choose the correct of the hind ones. The tight one under more of the soft long strands looks like the better choice to keep the other breeding thing inside.

And thus, the young Corrupted Queen shoves a hoof-sized boulder up a dead guardsmare's anus.

 **KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL! WIPE THE WORLD CLEAN!**

The pony's corpse, luckily, contains a piece of cloth with which the confused Corrupted starts polishing the ground.

Waves of blind anger and rage nearly consume her, making tears stream from her eyes and blood drip from one tentacle tongue she bit off during the fit. Her mind is forcefully torn apart, ripped out of her body and spread over a large area. A speck of warmth some distance away is put in front of her terrorized self's attention, and she starts limping in its direction.

Fighting her splitting headache as well as the screams of fury threatening to make her brain explode, she approaches a trembling four-legged thing, one without the shiny shell.

"Eeep!" the little thing, barely reaching the Queen's knees, whines, "Mommy..."

It whimpers some more when the young Queen's front legs grow sharp talons.

 **Kill!**

The small four-legger is yellow, the long strands coming from its head and backside are chocolate brown, and the way it sparkles like a mirror unvoluntarily makes the Queen smile. It walks closer, encouraged by the Corrupted's confused expression, and wraps its tiny front legs around the taloned black one.

 **Maim! Kill! Make them suffer for their futile resistance!**

The Queen tries again, this time opening her mouth to bite the foal's head off. Her momentary lapse of determination is followed by the soft touch of a little nose booping her chin. She stands there, muscles of her body creaking as they fight against the order inside her head to messily obliterate the little creature. Every strand of the Breeder Queen's will is resisting the foreign influence. The voice, however, does not understand a mare's instinct forcing her to protect a defenseless youngling, no matter what species.

"Aaaah!" the Queen clutches her head, feeling as if her brain was boiling.

 **DEFECT! Kill. Kill! KILL! KI-**

"Blrp?" the Queen's world hiccups... and restarts. This time, however, in blissful silence.

"Are you okay, weird lady?" the little thing opens its mouth and says something squeaky. As far as the Queen is concerned, it might just be breathing loudly. She does not understand a thing.

"Mrrmm..." the Queen wobbles, trying to steady herself and figure out the new controls of her body.

"You look silly, like daddy when he drinks the special juice," the squeaky voice continues. The Queen likes this voice, it makes her warmer, not like the one inside her head. She pats the sound-making blob which twitches as the talons touch its head. It is soft, hot, and nice, "He he, you're a nice Corrp- Corrup- bad pony."

"Pon-ee," the Queen croaks.

"Yeah, pony!" the foal's face brightens up, "Like me, my dad, and my mom! Only you're weird, and they are awesome. They even beat up some of you Crop- bad ponies when they came to take our farm," the foal's stomach rumbles, and it clutches its belly, "That was two days ago, owww. So hungry. You don't have anything to eat, weird lady, right?"

"Rait?" the Queen gives the little colt a puzzled look. The thing seems to want something.

"Food?" he rubs his belly, and then points to his mouth, making chewing motions.

The feeling of "rightness" flows through the Queen as she sits down, spreads her legs, and guides the colt's head to her teats. He gives in to reflex, and starts suckling the sweet black milk soon enough. Barely visible veins of corruption spread from his muzzle to his neck as he drinks, but nothing worse happens. This young of a pony understands nothing about breeding or dominance, and while he is still controlled by instinct as well as by his intelligence, such little corruption has nothing to take hold of yet.

When the Queen starts feeling light-headed, she pushes the colt away.

"Mrmm?"

"Thank you!" he jumps up, reinvigorated and chipper, "Ummm... I guess you can't take me home, right? It's behind the shield. I'm not supposed to stay out here on my own. There's a ton of other ponies there as well. I think they'd like you. You're nice."

"Pon-eez..."

"I'm Wheat Sickle, what's your name?"

"Neighm?"

"I guess you Corcrap- bad ponies don't get names then. Hey, you have a nice coat," Sickle rubs his muzzle against the Queen's dark green chin, "Soft, and green like grass in spring."

"Spring," the Queen repeats.

"Hey, you said that one right!" he smiles, points to himself again, "Wheat Sickle," then touches the Queen again, "Spring."

"Spring," the Queen repeats, touching her nose with one talon, "Weed Sikkel," she taps on his head.

"Good enough," Sickle hugs her leg again. His warmth assures the Queen she finally did something right. A small sense of satisfaction rings through her, as she, in defiance to the now silent voice, accepts the name "Spring".

Wheat Sickle starts trotting towards the pink shield in the distance. Spring overtakes him in few long strides.

"Hey, wait!" he squeaks as she walks too far forward, "You're too big."

"Beek?" she waits for him.

"Can you take me on your back like mom does?" he jumps up and down. Curious, Spring lowers her head to him. Sickle tries to climb up her neck, failing and falling flat on his rump, "EEP!" he squeaks as a bunch of tentacles grow from the ground, pick him up, and carefully lower him on Spring's back, "THAT WAS SO COOL! Do it again!"

"Mrmrm?"

"Nevermind," realizing she has no clue what he wants, Sickle finds a comfortable position to lie in, "Let's go!" he points towards the shield again.

"Lesgo!" Spring mirrors the enthusiasm in his voice, and resumes her brisk walk.

A Hunter crosses their path, growling at Wheat Sickle. When Spring approaches him, however, he rushes off. They pass more and more Corrupted walking around barely giving them a second glance. Spring can feel the ones who are close, but she can also feel something inside them, something much more threatening than they are. As they get to the pink, quietly humming barrier, there are Hunters and Protectors beating against it with hooves and tentacles. They don't seem to be trying too hard to break through, but their bruised looks prove they have been doing this for a while already.

"Mrrmr!" Spring grumbles angrily as her muzzle hits the impenetrable barrier over and over.

"You aren't supposed to get in," Sickle explains, "Only ponies can."

"Pon-eez..."

"Yeah, sorry. You're really nice. If I could, I'd take you in with me," his little legs hug her neck from her back.

"Nais."

He points at the ground, and Spring leans down to let him get off her. She gasps when Sickle's hoof effortlessly passes through the shield and tries to follow him, forgetting what happened before.

"Mrmrmrm!" she pokes the barrier after rubbing her bruised muzzle.

"If you ever get in, I'll tell mom to make you some cookies!" he gives her a wide smile, waves, and trots off.

Spring is alone again. Surrounded by dozens of abused-looking Corrupted, Spring feels completely alone. A large Protector keels over nearby, hooves cracked from beating the shield. Scream is hungry, and the malevolent will controlling these Corrupted does not seem to care about losing them too much. Her instincts keep telling her to absorb the Protector and gain strength, but she knows the same drive was forcing her to hurt the little colt. Instead, she tries to do the same thing as before, and shoves her teats into the Corrupted's face. A moment later she feels her strength flow away, but at the same time something inside her grants her more and more.

 _The more a Breeder Queen cares, the stronger she becomes._

She can't understand words, but the feelings of everything being the way it is supposed to be calm Spring down. As the Protector suckles, his memories and sensations flow into Spring. There is a plan behind forcing the Corrupted to blindly attack the barrier over and over. Why is she being kept out, though?

Images of thousands of ponies, shiny, winged, horned, and a pink, tall one with all the extra accessories, milling around make her eyes go wide. She wants to get inside as well, to see all of the pretty sights. A flicker of the Protector's further orders assure Spring that the Queen leading the attacking hive does not share her desires, rather that she wants to taint and devour all that sparkling beauty.

Spring arrives to a conclusion - she needs to persuade the other Queen not to do that. After all, the other one is a Breeder as well, and she should understand the "pon-eez" are not dangerous. They are small, physically weak, and squishy, but those things should make her want to safeguard them, not destroy.

Filled with confidence that nothing can go wrong welling from her being alive for mere hours, and being rather simpleminded, Spring walks along the edge of the barrier until she sees a mare taller than she is. The other Queen's smell makes her knees weak and fills Sping with desire to let the milk from the Queen's dripping, hanging melon-like teats melt her mind, to press her mouth against the other's hinquarters and be force fed eggs so large even her strong neck would distend, to become just an incubator for more Corrupted and make the Queen's hive the strongest, largest, and not having to fear anything.

The last spark of uncertainty in the Queen's scent forcing her will unto others wakes Spring up. Perhaps the Queen is scared of the voice as well?

The barely avoided loss of will and individuality makes Spring take a more careful approach. Sneaking through the hordes of Corrupted ignoring her, she gets close enough to the Queen to hear her making noises at-

Spring squeaks quietly, grinning from ear to ear.

-a bunch of sparkly ponies in the shiny shells from before. There are two ponies on the other side of the barrier making noises at the Queen as well.

One is the tall, winged and horned, pink mare with multicolored mane that sparkles in the weak sunlight like some of the ponies. Spring can feel the warmth coming off her in waves even this far away., and her sharp eyes can make out a small picture of a sparkly heart decorated with gold ornaments on her rump.

The other one is a white, blue-maned, muscular stallion with a horn bearing a scar across his face and one milky-white eye. He is smaller than the mare, and he is not even close to being as well-built as the Protectors. However, the thin, dark blue beard outlining his muzzle make all three of Spring's tongues hang out. His toned behind adorned with the mark of a sea-blue shield only serves to deepen her desire.

Spring perks hear ears. Perhaps she can decipher the noises the Queen is making according to the feelings she bears.

"You must be the Queen of this place, and, from the scent lingering on both of you, the stallion is your recent mate," the Queen examines the leading duo, ignoring the dozens of armed ponies around them, "We have forced your barrier to shrink during the past week, and we can break it completely soon. However, I wish only to understand what you lesser creatures are, and if you can be of any use. Let us in to observe, and we will return those of you we captured, untainted and unharmed. Your stallion might even learn a trick or two about pleasing real mares like us."

The pink mare gags, and the white stallion has only one reply:

"I have a bad history with queens trying to get close to me. So, how about you burn in Tartarus for all eternity instead?"


	18. We Are the Land: Mrrr (Lonely Hunter)

Nightshade walks through Ponyville, accompanied by the farmers still queezy from the events with the bandits. Her pony form is gone, replaced by black, sleek body of a Corrupted toned to perfection. She wants the stallions to look at her with fear and barely contained lust. She wants mares to be jealous as well as drooling on the inside at the idea of her growing a second set of genitals and putting them to good use. She wants to let every single being in her vicinity know that the ultimate power, beauty, and desirability is walking by.

And she knows that is exactly what is happening. Even the terrified farmers surrounded from all sides by Hunters are watching her. She can smell the stallions' arousal as their eyes are glued to every hypnotic movement of her behind, and not only that of stallions. Nightshade is on top of the world. Sadly, from up high she cannot see the worried white Hunter prowling by her side and wondering about what has happened to the amicable pegasus mare he saved not even two months ago. When the rescued farmers trot down the enclave tunnels, Nightshade leads chilly through Ponyville to where the past Queen's seat of power was.

It is a simple circular park, not more than an area of grass with several trees surrounded by buildings in various state of ruin and reconstruction.

"This place will do," Nightshade smiles and focuses the power she has been denying until now. Tree after black tree sprout from the soft ground, encircling the entire park and leaving only one entrance, "Now, my little Chilly. Let us celebrate our successful mission."

The white Hunter turns his head in confusion when Nightshade pushes him down on the shimmering black grass, and whines uncertainly.

"Don't worry," she bites down on his neck hard enough to make him yelp but not enough to draw blood, "Just do what I say and we'll both enjoy this. I've wanted this for SO loooong."

The little voice inside Nightshade's head telling her that her Chilly needs caring approach rather than forceful is brutally silenced by the intoxicating power she feels flowing through her veins.

"Now, I know you want this. I have seen the inside of your head. You haven't mated with any pony or Corrupted while by my side. It is time to finally cut loose," she bends her back, presenting her dripping marehood to him, "MOUNT ME!"

The order is a mental command as well as a scream, and Chilly's body moves on its own. Not for long, though.

"You just needs a little persuasion," she channels her inner Breeder, releasing pheromones made to drive him crazy while beating with her mind against his defenses. Ignoring the complete chaos of his psyche interwoven only with sheer horror, she breaks his will and takes direct control over his body, "Just a few thrusts, and then you will catch on quickly. I know you want me."

Like a rubber band tested bayond its limits, something snaps between them, and Chilly collapses on the grass, breathing heavily, looking up at her with teary eyes, and trying to push himself away. The sorry sight makes Nightshade burn with molten fury.

"SO THIS IS IT? YOU DON'T TRUST ME! TWILIGHT DOESN'T TRUST ME! NOPONY TRUSTS ME! ALL OF YOU LOOK AT ME AS IF I WAS A MONSTER!" she kicks the cowering Hunter so hard he hits the trees on the other side of the circle, and growls, "Well, I don't need you. I don't need any of you. I survived. You are better off now than you were when living in your frozen cage. My hive is getting more and more powerful, and so are Twilight's ponies. I will make the bitch eat her words when I rise as the protector against forces that make her stain her purple behind. If you can't even satisfy me when I want- no NEED IT, then you can go rot in Tartarus, coward! Useless, limp dicked, whiny coward!" she howls, calling for Corrupted to come to her, "I can choose the best of the best to make me cry in pleasure! What use do I have for... you? I thought you would want this because I meant something for you, but now I know better!"

A big, muscular Protector comes through the gap in the trees, loins at attention and about as much free will as a potato dropping from a cliff. His nostrils flare, and he immediately jumps at Nightshade, mounting her without hesitation. She laughs triumphantly, screaming more into the air than at Chilly.

"You see?! This is WHAT YOU COULD HAVE HAD, WHAT I WANTED TO GIVE YOU! I DON'T WANT YOU! YOU ARE NOTHING!"

And she is right. By the time her angry yelling punctuated by loud moans and heavy breathing subsides, the white Hunter has already crawled away, whining and whimpering with every step.

He is not necessary anymore. He has fulfilled his duty and allowed ponies to recover at least a tiny bit of their domain. It is time for him to hide away until he is needed again. Nopony wants him.

He feels cold, so freezing cold, so... alone.

The biting wind of approaching winter coming from the north answers the ice growing inside him and leads his way. When Nightshade regains her senses, she gallops through the enclave to the frozen room Chilly had taken for himself after their first arrival, but there is nothing there. No berries, no glassy trees, just a simple guest room with clean sheets covering an unused bed.

The Ponyville Queen panics now, sending her mind as far as she can, forcing Hunters to find any trace of him, and scanning their senses and memories. However, the simple Corrupted cannot find anything, and the link between the Queen and her favourite Hunter is long gone. With the dying remains of the equinity inside her making her recall everything she had gone through, Nightshade lies down on the grass of her new "throne room" and buries her head into her talons, mumbling:

"What have I done?"

Days and nights pass as the white Hunter travels without a direction, driven only by the lowering temperatures. The frost feels fitting, and he leaves glassy hoofsteps behind him, sapping the grass and other vegetation of life. He does not look at the sky, light and darkness being the same to his excellent eyes, and thus he does not count how much time has passed since he has left Ponyville. Cold and exhausted, he keeps on walking.

Chilly stops looking at the ground only when the cold eases up slightly, curious what caused the change. A wooden cabin is stading nearby, flickering orange glow coming through the window. He senses only a single being inside, weak, fragile, and non-threatening - a pony. However, as he reaches the forest clearing where the cabin sits, he notices hair-thin reflections of moonlight in the grass. A curious examination of one reveals it to be a wire leading to a strange contraption resembling a heavy hanging spike hidden in the leaves of a nearby tree. Taking several steps back, Chilly focuses his mind, and a crystalline blade of grass grows underneath the wire, sending the sharpened log right through where an unfortunate victim would set the trap off.

He shrugs. All he has to do is be careful, and then he can finally be a little warmer. The cold beckons him, but a little hidden voice tells him that he has to seek warmth, otherwise the frozen rain drenching his coat would eventually take him away. Chilly wouldn't really mind.

Stepping over holes with spikes covered by leaves and branches, avoiding more tripwires and strange clicking things smelling of gunpowder and sulfur, the white Hunter reaches the cabin's door, locked door. The pony inside has not moved, and he has no desire to change that, so he allows one of his hooves to melt and presses it into the keyhole. The biomass flows through every crevice of the lock, moving any movable pieces, filling and exploring. The key inside falls out, the mechanism clicks, and Chilly creeps inside. The place is warm, well-isolated from the wet cold outside, and after he shuts the door behind him even the cold air stops its intrusion. He doesn't make a sound and, prowling on his softened hooves until he reaches the happily crackling fireplace, shoves his muzzle as close to it as he can, and curls up into a tight little ball...

...much to the complete confusion of an earthpony mare sitting on the bed and grasping a large, spiked club in her hooves, mouth agape.

The sound of something hard hitting wood wakes Chilly up. He moves his legs to stretch and touches something heavy, which makes him freeze and look around, fully awake. He is surrounded by a dome made of sharp wires, and behind it there are sawtoothed pieces of metal like the ones ponies in Ponyville used against Corrupted. He also knows stepping onto those can make them snap even a Protector's bone. Granted, they are mostly only an inconveniece from a long-term perspective, but still.

A red-maned brown mare is pressing her back against the cabin door which are shaking with impact after impact. Luckily, Chilly is not stupid, and instead of flailing like an animal or wild Corrupted would do, he simply picks the weights on one side of the razor wire net up, and lifts them over his head. Jumping over the circle of bear traps is just a formality, and he is free.

"Oh for Cadence's sake! Are you serious? What did I do to come upon the only smart Corrupted in recorded history? OOF!" the mare curses and shakes with another blow to the door. As Chilly walks towards her, she mumbles quickly, "Hey, if you want somepony to eat, there's a bunch of assholes right behind this door. Ponies, chewy."

"Mrmmmr?" Chilly grumbles, tilting his head.

"Okay, come oooon," she grins, "I know you want to jump at me. Just give me enough warning to open this door... in... TIME! HA!"

She jumps away from the door when Chilly takes his next step, and the door shoots open. Unfortunately for her plan to confront whoever is behind the door with a wild Hunter, he doesn't jump. An earthpony with clear signs of Corruption and a battering ram hanging on a harness around his neck barges in.

"Got you, little mare! Time to join our- WHATTHECRAP?!"

He dies two seconds later after Chilly charges him head on and, completely on accident, pushes him into one of the now uncovered holes with spikes.

"She's got a Corrupted with her!" another pony yells, "Burn them both!"

Thrown bottles of oil break against the cabin walls and immediately catch on fire. The mare curses, runs back inside, and returns with her spiked club held firmly in her mouth. An explosive bottle hits Chilly who screeches and rolls on the ground.

"Good, now get the chick! We could use some fresh meat-" spikes of ice break the ground underneath him and pierce his skull. The thick icicle drags the body upwards, making it just a macabre decoration.

"Grwrrr!" Chilly snarls, snow white coat glittering with teal rime. Several more firebombs hit him but merely hiss out into vapor. The bandits, in utter disbelief that their attacks aren't working, flee, leaving broken branches and the smoldering cabin the only trace of their presence.

"Dammit!" the mare curses again at the sight of the fire spreading along the wall, "Whare did I put the bucket?" she tries to get inside, but the the doorway bursts into flames.

Chilly watches the panicking mare beating the fire with leafy branches to douse it, but the oil simply spreads onto her makeshift dousing implement. He likes this place, it is warm and sheltered from rain. Plus, the mare does not seem to mind him too much, and he can sense no organized Corrupted anywhere nearby. Thus, he decides to mark this territory as his.

The ground around him freezes over, ice spreading further and further, turning the moldy black trees into a glassy white forest. Grass and bushes crunch as rime takes them, and the wooden logs of the front facade of the cabin creak when they freeze over, ending the reign of fire instantly.

The mare stares, paralyzed, at her cabin partially turned into Hearth's Warming decoration and at the frozen forest everywhere the eye can see. In the middle of it stands Chilly, wobbling unsteadily on his legs after such expenditure of power. The smaller mare walks over, picking her club again and gripping it in her mouth.

"What the-?!" she jumps away when Chilly's muzzle softly touches hers.

"Mrrmr?" he tilts his head. When he gets no answer from the lightly blushing mare, he limps back into the cabin, closing the broken door as tightly as possible. It is not as warm as it was before, so he crawls even closer to the fireplace and lets his mind wander through his new forest. A minute later he is poked by a long spear held by the mare.

"You don't look like the others, I wonder why..."

"Mmmmrmmm..." he just grumbles, one eye open to observe her putting away all the previously armed bear traps.

"Thanks, by the way, for messing with my traps and letting the bastards in."

"Mmrm."

"You look like you can understand me, but you have no clue, right?"

"Mrmm."

"Thought so. Meh, I'd still prefer to have you around rather than them. You are just animals, but they chose to live out here just so that they didn't have to live under the Empire's law. This way they can abduct ponies and either hold them for ransom, use them as slaves, or as bait to draw Corrupted away from their hideout," she continues to examine if any damage was done to the inside of the cabin. Luckily, no thrown explosive hit a window.

"Mrrwrm!" Chilly senses hoofsteps from outside.

"THAT'S FOR CONSORTING WITH ONE OF THEM, BITCH!" an angry voice is followed by a window shattering and an inferno of flames. The explosion throws Chilly into the fireplace, confusing him more than anything, but the sickening crunch of the mare hitting a sturdy wardrobe makes him recover almost instantly. He roars, ready to hunt the bandit down.

"Argh!" the mare groans, coughing blood, as her coat is singed by the rapidly spreading fire. She cannot see much through the smoke, until a sharp stab of pain nearly makes her pass out. A moment later she is back outside in the fresh air, enveloped by tentacles holding her tight on Chilly's back.

"My... stuff..." she coughs again, wrecked by pain of doubtlessly broken ribs and at least one leg, "Okay... screw stuff..."

"Mrmrm?" Chilly whines, looking from side to side for something, anything to help with the bone of one of the mare's front legs peeking through skin and coat. She is too hurt for him to heal without turning her completely into a Corrupted, but with seconds ticking it seems to be the only option.

"Crystal... Empire..." she mumbles, her eyes closing on their own.

"MMRMRM?!" he whines again, this time louder. The mare's healthy, well - only badly bruised and burned, front leg points in a direction.

"That... way..."

Her broken leg freezes over as Chilly drains power from his recently transformed environment, turning his hind legs into clawed paws and his coat into almost liquid substance. He needs anything that could help him move fast and without irritating the mare's wounds. Slowly accelerating, he eventually becomes no more than a white blur jumping and galloping through the forest. Half a day's worth of dangerous trip for a pony becomes less than an hour, and with the still breathing mare on his back, Chilly starts beating against the pink barrier in the middle of tundra.

A bunch of armored ponies arrive soon after, horns glowing, spears ready.

"MMRMMMRM!" Chilly turns his side to them to show them the mare on his back, and unwraps his tentacles from her.

"Is that a pony?" one of the guards asks, "What is this, a Corrupted rescue service?"

"Grrrwr!"

"Okay, this is some serious bullshit. This does NOT happen. It has to be a trick."

"Trick or not," a unicorn mare in the back wearing a white cap with horn peeking through objects, "if she is a pony then the shield will let her in."

"That thing looks powerful, taking a step outside is beyond stupid."

"Oh hey, a stallion with no balls," the mare comments sarcastically, "Glad the Crystal Guard gets better and better with each year," she pushes past the stallion and through the pink shield. Giving Chilly a careful look, she says, "For some reason you are here with her. Now, let me take her and don't make me cum my horn off, please."

Blue aura envelops the mare on Chilly's back, and she freezes under the effect of a stasis spell. The medic levitates the mare with her through the shield much to the shocked looks of the other guards. Everypony leaves, and Chilly is left alone yet again, this time without ice flowing through his veins.

The remains of the burned cabin make him growl to himself. His senses flow through the frozen soil of his new territory, locking on the heat of underhooves, sound and tremors of hoofsteps, and anything else he can find. Five minutes of standing with talons stabbed deep into the ground later, Chilly knows exactly where the bandits are. A replica of an ancient full plate armor made of ice envelops him, and a nearly forgotten saying rings through his mind: "A pony is a wolf to other ponies."

A memory surfaces. He is not supposed to protect, but to hunt down those who have fallen into darkness.

The bandits have no chance. The whirlwind of freezing magic, tentacles, razor-sharp talons, teeth firm enough to bite through chainmail, and excellent, although just a little rusty, combat training are simply too much to handle. He may have found the bandits with the intent to drive them out of his territory, but after seeing a female Breeder beaten up and transformed into an abomination of orifices able to service at least ten ponies at once, he cut loose.

He knows the fall of these ponies happened most likely due to the Breeder, confusing them with her scent, but there was no ill intent in it whereas their abuse...

The more he thinks about it the less he regrets the mess of organs and limbs strewn everywhere around. He made sure no one escaped, but he feels sick.

A second mind taps into his, relieving his pressure and anger a little. The Breeder, once again a small mare with wide hips, hanging teats, and inviting fragrance wiggles her behind in front of his face. She senses his distress and tries to help in the only way she knows how. Chilly, however, has no interest, especially after a quick memory of Nightshade trying to rape him flickers through his mind. With his territory clear, he simply lies down to finally have a rest.

"Mrmmr?" he looks up as the Breeder drapes over him like a short blanket and licks his ear.

Perhaps just needing somepony close is more of an instinct than mating is.


	19. We Are the Land: Shainee Poneez!

The negotiation between the ponies and the Breeder Queen ends with the ponies leaving and the Queen standing outside the bright, pink barrier. Hidden behind a house a fair distance away, Spring stops eavesdropping and gathers the courage to talk to the other Queen. She needs to be persuaded not to break the shield and corrupt every pony inside.

 _"Greetings,"_ Spring sends a mental message to the Queen and feels her surprise, as if she had no idea Spring was ever there.

The Queen glares, examines, and her forces surround Spring who is quickly getting the idea that this might have been a poor choice.

 **"You look like a Queen, yet you have no hive or mind. What are you, a fake?"**

Spring has no answer. She was born hours ago and since she got no real explanation from the voice she doesn't know what the Queen means. Her feeding the little colt gave her a look inside his mind, and that knowledge is slowly being processed, but is still far from understood. Perhaps the other Queen just doesn't know ponies are terrified of her.

 _"I am like you, and I want to ask you to stop your attack. The fragile creatures are afraid of you and pose only a minor threat."_

The Queen gives her an amused stare and answers simply:

 **"No."**

Spring doesn't understand. Is the Queen blind to the facts?

 _"Transforming them will not give you anything. You have enough land and subjects, and you can make more as needed. You can learn from them how to make those surface caves so that we don't get rained on and frozen. They are soft, warm, and colourful."_

 **"And mouthwatering,"** the Queen approaches Spring, **"It feels so good, so right to devour and transform one of them, to have them give in to their desires as they worship and please you. If you can't feel that burning need to deliciously taint them then you must be a defect. A weak one to be disassembled and reabsorbed."**

Spring feels the Queen's will flow through the soil around and can dodge the tentacles breaking the ground and trying to grab her. The Queen screeches, and Spring knows the hunt is on. Narrowly avoiding the slashes from the Hunters around her, Spring bolts away from the laughing Queen, followed by a pack of feral Corrupted.

They are much faster than she is, but not even the Queen's will inside them can force them not to play with her a little, giving her precious seconds to adapt. The Hunters' talons on front legs allow them to maneuver better and run faster with torn grass shooting from their legs. Muscular behinds and overall strength of their hind legs give them much greater jumping capabilities. Spring can mimic the first one easily, but the latter contradicts her Breeder genes, and her wide hips tighten only a little. For the same reason she cannot transform her body into a super lean frame like they possess. Still, while she is not faster than her pursuers, the speed difference drops significantly as she transforms.

Spring cannot be like them, but she can be herself. The Breeder Queen's will is reinforced via close contact and pheromones, and the further the Hunters get away from their Queen, the stronger effect Spring's released scent is going to have on them. She just needs to survive long enough.

A pony-made surface cave -a house, her growing mind brings up the term- is nearby, one of the many scattered all around. There are too many empty holes for her plan to work, she needs an enclosed space. A small storage shed with no windows is in the distance, door barely hanging on its hinges. She needs to buy time, the Hunters are swiping at her from all sides and the blood flowing from the wounds is starting to exhaust her.

She buries her legs into the ground and stops on the spot. The Hunter behind her rams straight to her hindquarters, getting an unhealthy dose of Spring's controlling scent. The Queen's control over him breaks instantly when touched by Breeder's juices.

 _"I need seconds,"_ her will flows through the Hunter who immediately jumps at another one and bites its neck. The survival instinct of the Hunters overrides the Queen's order to hunt Spring down, and all of them converge on the greater percieved threat - one of them. Spring whines in horror as they rip her Hunter to pieces, but in the meantime she manages to get into the shed and close the door.

Breathing heavily, she knows this is not a hiding place, nor a defendable one. She lies down and focuses on what makes her tick - the ecstatic pleasure when she breastfed the colt and when the Hunter's open muzzle licked her marehood, spelling the end of its free will. Her juices splatter the floor in seconds as rubs herself with her tail, making it thicker and ramming it into herself over and over.

One of the Hunters bashes the door open, ripping it off its hinges. He turns docile and his mouth drops, walking like a puppet towards Spring. All the others suffer the same fate as they barge one after the other into the shed. In this small space, her scent is overwhelming, and within moments the twelve Hunters are under her absolute control. Spring knows the Queen will send more as soon as she finds out the first group failed. However, the Queen apparently could not sense her, and a Breeder Queen has more tricks up her sexy sleeve.

The concrete floor of the shed turns into mossy ground, and wines shoot from it, growing through the mix of wood and stone the building is made of. With this many Corrupted around, Spring's influence changes the land into her territory. She tries to stop it, but this is what she is. The Hunters, now peaceful, lie down on the moss and rest. This wouldn't do, though. Spring needs to be devious.

If the Queen can sense others but not her, then she cannot allow the land or the Hunters to reveal her. As she uses her body more, her understanding of herself grows further. A Breeder Queen does not have land and a hive, she IS the land and the hive. Spring takes a deep breath and focuses.

The moss turns back to concrete, the wines retract, and the Hunters melt into the ground, absorbed along with everything else into Spring's body. She feels the minds inside her, the exact unique shapes of bodies belonging to each one, and their simple thoughts. She is their world, and she can recreate them as she pleases.

What to do now, though? Where Spring has twelve Hunters, the other Queen has legions inside her. She has no idea. However, she is protected from the other Queen's senses as long as she does not get too close. It is time to observe and learn.

For two days Spring wanders around the pink bubble, rummages through empty houses, and examines everything she finds. The information drained from the colt's mind shines light on numerous finds, making her admire the wondrous creations of ponies, but there are far too many things she cannot identify. For two days the Queen's hive beats against the protective barrier, making cracks spread further and further through it until...

...the white, blue-maned unicorn arrives at the edge of the barrier again, this time only with soldiers. It takes a while, but the Queen arrives to meet him. Spring, having kept out of Queen's sight but not so far she herself couldn't observe, hides behind a nearby Protector completely ignoring her.

"You want to get inside..." the unicorn simply says.

"Indeed."

"If we let you, and ONLY you inside, will you stop breaking our shield?" he asks, audible defeat in his voice.

"Of course. Am I correct in assuming the barrier exists not only to keep us out, but for some other purpose as well?"

"Yes."

"I expect you to enlighten me during my... visit."

"As long as you do not endanger us, we are willing to answer any and all questions you might have and show you anything you want. You are the first sentient Corrupted we have ever met."

"Excellent," the Queen smiles in satisfaction. Her Corrupted stop damaging the barrier and retreat into the distance, disappearing from sight, "I merely wish to sate my curiosity, and possibly sate some of YOUR needs as well."

"I am not touching you with a spear covered by a block of concrete," the unicorn says coldly, "I know pretty well what would happen to me if I did."

"Awww, am I that scary?" she chuckles, pressing her hooves against the barrier, making it pulsate rapidly.

"Yes," is a straightforward answer which seems to surprise the Queen.

"I see. Well, let me show you I am not THAT terrifying," a tree grows next to her in mere seconds, dropping thick coccoons from its branches. They pop, and ponies fall out of them, drenched in black liquid, "Here are all your patrols sent to stop me, as per my promise," more and more trees grow, letting out armored ponies.

The unicorn orders his soldiers to pass the barrier and help the ponies inside. Since the shield does nothing to stop them, they assume no corruption is present.

"I-Is there a chance we could reclaim the edge of our Empire you took from us in past weeks?" the unicorn asks carefully, not wanting to push his unexpected luck.

"I am sure we can work something out if you do not mind our company. Perhaps if you are useful in growing my territory, I can return a part of yours."

There are no more Corrupted in sight, only the Queen talking carelessly to the group.

"Alright, I will let you inside, but you have to be escorted by our soldiers at all times."

"I am sure to enjoy their company."

"That didn't sound sinister at all..." the unicorn mutters, and his horn flickers, "Well, come in."

"Mee-steak!" Spring squeaks far away, sorting through noises she barely understands, "Haiv insaid!"

There is no way she can stop it from happening, however, so as the Queen is halfway through the barrier, Spring gallops towards the closes point of the bubble, and jumps through. The shield shifting once again with a flash of the unicorn's horn solidifies and cuts one Spring's hind leg off mid-jump. With a pained hiss, she regrows it.

She is inside and EVERYTHING IS ALL SPARKLY AND BRIGHT!

Now, she knows ponies would be scared of her, so she adjusts her shape a little, shrinking and peeking from behind a house at several ponies walking nearby. She can't adjust the color, but dark green looks fine. Four hooves seem to be the norm, and her tail has to be bushy, not a whipping tentacle one. There is no way she can sparkle like some of the ponies, but there are others who don't as well. From a distance she might just pass for one of them. With a satisfied smile, she sneaks through shadowy alleys, drinking in the smells and sights the endless sparkling streets offer.

A lingering worry of meeting the other Queen on accident makes her sort through the noises she learned to use and their meaning. Alley after alley, she peeks out and into the windows of shops, houses, and many many more buildings which don't smell in any particular way or which are not identified by any fragment of memory she absorbed from Weed Sickle. She does not linger too long anywhere, though. Ponies looking her way gasp from time to time, making her dart back into the shadows and hide between dumpsters and bags smelling of rotten food and other leftovers. Spring sniffs and tastes everything she finds lying around, but not many things seem edible or useful.

"Here you are!" says a forceful voice, and something bumps into the metal dumpster Spring is sitting in after spending a little too much time around a deliciously sweet-smelling shop with various poofy and multicoloured treats. Her mind sorts through what little she knows and brings up the term - pastries, "Come out!"

The unlucky crystal pegasus guard who spotted Spring sneaking around believed he caught either one of the homeless ponies who lost their belongings during the shrinking of the protective barrier due to Corrupted attacks or a thief. He chokes on his saliva when a dark green head pops out of the dumpster, watching him with utmost curiosity, completely black eyes with beastly yellow orbs in the middle blinking.

He jumps backwards, twirls a spear in his front hooves, and assumes a combat stance, the butt of the weapon propped against his hind hoof and the tip aiming at the dumpster.

Spring has no clue what the pony is doing. To her, he is about as dangerous as a rock on the ground - she might accidentally stub her hoof, but that's about the extent of it. With no real threat presented, she succumbs to her curiosity and shows what she believes to be a friendly smile.

The guard nearly soils his armor when presented with mouth full of sharp teeth able to bite through all his protection.

"Hello, shiny pony!" the completely obvious Corrupted mare says.

He drops his spear.

"Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-?" he fumbles for the spear, accidentally kicking it further away from him.

"Wuwuwuwuwuwuwu?" Spring imitates the noise her head can't translate. A moment of watching the panicking guard later, she finally gets the answer - 'who'. The pony was asking her name and repeated it because it took her too long to understand. She can't blow her cover now! "Spring," she points at her head and jumps out of the dumpster.

The guard watches the Corrupted quite unsuccessfully pretending to be a pony jump with one big leap out of a metal container two ponies tall and land without making a noise. He finally manages to pick the spear up and aim it at Spring again.

"I thought you were supposed to be escorted by the prince himself. The entire Empire was alerted to your visit."

Spring crunches the presented information really hard. She understands the common words and the meaning, but the connections are giving her issues. So does the result.

"Bad Queen!" she waves her hooves, "Eat ponies!"

"What?" the guard shakes his head, "You?"

"No! Bad Queen!" Spring looks for a solution, stomping her hooves over and over, "Mate blue white pony. Eat pink horn wing pony!"

"Wait... you mean you are NOT the visit the announcement spoke of?"

"Sneak through."

"And you aren't trying to trick me into lowering my guard so you can eat me..."

Tentacles break the crystalline ground underneath the guard, binding him in place. Spring walks towards him struggling and grunting in vain. She leans down, licks his face, and makes the tendrils retract back underground.

"You no food, you shiny. You bad Queen food."

The guard stands back up, looking at the dents in his armor easily squashed by the tentacles.

"So, you seem to understand me, even if you have to think about it, but you can't speak properly."

"Yes," Spring nods.

"So... why are YOU here?"

"Colors. Shiny. Smells. Movement," Spring sits down and waves her hooves around. She can't explain how all the overwhelming everything of this place makes her feel, but it is much better than the land outside livened up only by whistling wind, "Ponies!"

The guard can't help smiling a little at the foal-like wonder of the young Queen. Sadly, the moment fades instantly.

"You said the other Queen wants to attack us. How? She is alone, and the prince said she wanted to get to know us."

"No true. I know. Hive here," Spring shakes her head.

"How?" the guard repeats, "the barrier stops all Corrupted unless it is changed by the prince or princess."

"Breeder Queen. She hive. She land," Spring takes a deep breath, and the ground around her turns to black soil with grass quickly growing out of it. The entire alley turns dark, and finally the absorbed Hunters grow from it as well, surrounding the paralyzed guard. Several seconds later, the Hunters are gone again and the alley transform back.

"Th-That wasn't an illusion, right? They were really here. Can she do it as well?" the guard's eyes go wide as he realizes the implications, "How many Corrupted does she have with her?"

Numbers...

"Many."

"We need to warn the prince!"

"Secret. She attack prince. She attack me. Good ears."

"Hmmm... HAH! Got an idea. Stay here and hide!" the guard runs out of the alley, blowing a whistle sharply. He returns several minutes later. Rolling his eyes after seeing nothing and nopony, he bangs at the dumpster again.

"Hello!" Spring's head pokes out again, chewing on a piece of rotting carrot.

"You can come out. I sent a patrol to warn the prince and gave them instructions to do it covertly. If the other Queen is anything like you then she won't know our customs enough to see through it. The army should be moving in less than hour. What should I do with you for now?"

"Breed?" Spring shrugs. It's a tried and tested idea, after all.

The guard recoils. While Spring, and Corrupted mares in general, definitely outshines most ponies, the creepiness factor for him still hits eleven out of ten even with everything telling him that this one might be different.

"No, thanks. Got a marefriend already, and getting it on with one of you isn't really healthy."

Spring sniffs the air.

"Sweet."

"Right, you were lurking under the windows. Are you hungry?"

That is one thing Spring is certain about. She might not be physically hampered by it, but she could definitely go for something to eat. She nods, all three tongues licking her muzzle. The guard recoils.

"Yeeeeeah. I'd keep those things hidden. We don't want ponies throwing stuff at you... too soon. Stick to just one."

The tongues retract.

"Good. Now come with me and DO NOT, under literally any circumstances unless you are about to die, do anything more than looking. Wait for me to tell you what to do and don't make me regret not setting fire to you."

"Curious," Spring nods.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go..."

"LESGO!" Spring jumps enthusiastically.

"Oh dear," the guard steps out of the alley, dreading the immediate future, and leads the Corrupted Queen into the bakery.

"Hey, miss-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" is the reaction of a chubby yellow mare at the counter jumping behind it with the speed her corpulent figure should not allow.

"Miss Glitterdust, I implore you to stop -OUCH!- stop screaming and -OWWW!- throwing things at me!"

"Th-th-th-th-th-" the mare points her shaking hoof at Spring watching her with utter fascination.

"Dudududududu-" the Queen joins in.

"Stop it!" the guard facehoofs, fighting off a growing headache, "Both of you, please," he dodges a pie thrown at him which smacks Spring straight in the face, "Well, great. Now we both die. Good job, Glitterdust..."

*NOM NOM NOM!*

Spring's jaw is hanging so wide open she resembles a passable Nightmare Night costume. Luckily, the sharp teeth and three tentacles are busy chewing and gobbling down the thrown pie.

"Umm..." Glitterdust stops going berserk and watches Spring licking the floor in search for lost crumbs. When it is done both mares look at the guard, waiting for something, "What is going on, Mirage?"

"Well, that was what I was trying to tell you at first, Glitter," the guard finally gets a word in, "It's a tad complicated, but you know the announcement a while ago?"

Glitterdust nods.

"This is, ehm, another visitor, yeah, wanting to see out beautiful Empire. Right..." Mirage doesn't look as if he could persuade even himself that it is true.

"Now tell me the one about the red trotting hood," the mare gives him a skeptic stare, "HEY!" she turns to Spring sniffing a cake at the window, tentacle tongues poking it carefully, "You gotta pay for it first!"

"Pay?" Spring tilts her head.

"I hate life, I hate life, I hate life, I hate life," Mirage reaches for a money pouch hidden under his wing, "Glitter, how much is that cake?"

"Twenty-five bits, the entire thing. So... about the pie she-"

"DON'T even go there!" Mirage raises his hoof, making the mare chuckle.

"So... what's the real story? You caught one of the horny ones outside and want sexy times later?"

"I am in a happy relationship, Glitter," Mirage rolls his eyes, "No, this one seems to have snuck inside while the one visiting the prince was let in. She says the other one is evil and wants to apparently fuck and eat prince Shining if I understood her correctly."

"Hey, we need to warn-"

"Already taken care of. I'm not THAT stupid. The army should be moving soon, they take these warnings seriously. Now, though, it looks like I have to show this one around because letting her wander through the Empire on her own sounds REALLY dumb. It's mostly because I don't want to fill any more forms regarding corrupted or killed ponies than for her sake, but who knows..."

"So..."

"I caught her sniffing around and peeking into your windows. She seems to enjoy pastry."

They look at drooling Spring making a small puddle on the floor in front of the cake.

"You can eat it now, he paid for it," Glitter nods towards the cake. Spring looks at Mirage.

"Go for it. Just don't make too much mess- oh for Cadance's sake..."

Spring raises a sticky head from the pile of cake on the floor.

"Owww, I can't bill you for the cleanup, Mirage," Glitter grins, watching Spring lick the floor clean.

The Crystal Guard's eye twitches in sync with his mouth. He has no idea how much worse his day is going to get.


	20. We Are the Land: Iceborn King

The white Hunter is conflicted.

On one hoof, Chilly knows Corrupted have to be driven out of his territory in order not to endanger a wandering pony. On the other, however, he saw how beneficial cooperation between the two races can be if the Corrupted are under a strong rule. Granted, Nightshade's sanity was a thing to be questioned, but now that means little.

The main reason for his confusion, as he wanders his new home up in the cold north, is the Breeder mare he saved from the bandits following him ever since. He was in this situation once, lonely, forgotten, with his mind drifting away, and he was saved by a lucky encounter with Nightshade. He doesn't want that to happen again. The awakening of his slumbering mind in Ponyville via contact with more and more ponies made him different.

He is not like Corrupted, wild beasts needing strong will to rule over them. He is not like ponies, fragile creatures with unlimited potential. He is much like Mana Burn, a strong warrior tainted by the dark influence behind the Corrupted, but forcefully ripped away from it. However, where Mana Burn is an accidental success story, Chilly knows he is much more. His "owner" made him into much more, wanted him to be more than those experiments before him and those following.

He recalls Bastion with a hint of jealousy and sadness. Where Bastion marginally succeeded in returning to Canterlot and bringing their "owner's" research back, Chilly failed and lost himself for decades. Seeing Bastion, Luna, and Twilight Sparkle again brought back memories. Not many, granted, but those strong and important ones.

Especially the one about a glorious white alicorn he admired, adored, worshipped, and loved. The ruler of the sun, leader of the Golden Legion, an immortal princess, and underneath it all a simple mare who shouldered the future of her land without complaint. He was one of the endless line of lovers princess Celestia had through her life, he knew it at the time. He knew he was just a little dot in her eternal existence which would be eventually forgotten. Yet, his princess spent her time with him as if he was the one lover she would grow old with.

He knew it wasn't an act. When Celestia loved, she loved with all her heart and soul. Which was one reason she couldn't bring herself to allow "Chilly" to join her and the Legion in the final days. Bastion was sent to escort the seriously wounded and deliver the research while he was... spared. The second reason was a lot more calculated. Celestia's lover became the most successful experiment between the transformed soldiers, one who kept majority of his essence through the transformation, one who stayed himself. A pony with strong self can gather followers and turn them to his cause.

Frostbite, a unicorn battlemage volunteer became the first artificially created Corrupted leader. Upon the experiment's success, Celestia transformed herself to become the Queen of the tainted Golden Legion. Had he not survived, she would have never used the rituals the second time. His mission was to be a safeguard against Celestia's failure, to create a hive which would help ponies deal with the undefeated threat.

A century later he succeeded. Not in the way his princess wanted, but he did.

However, one big however, it all now hangs on Nightshade not falling to pieces, which is something he has trouble believing. He understands, though. After all, he could not defeat the crushing loneliness and the taint gnawing at him for years. Who was he to expect it from somepony without his ingrained loyalty and self-control? He had the experience for a long time, and now he has the recovering mind to make use of it again. The white Hunter comes to a simple conclusion - solitude is the reason making the mind deteriorate. Ponies, and apparently Corrupted, need contact with one another to prevent becoming... animals.

Which is why he simply sighs when the Breeder mare starts chewing his rump and demanding attention. Expecting to see a gaping and dripping marehood, Chilly dismisses the resurfacing memories and turns around.

His ribs crack as a devastating blow sends him crashing into the trunk of a nearby icy tree. He growls, quickly forming talons and glistening armor of rime. He must have been pretty deep in thought not to have noticed a Protector approaching him.

The enemy looks like a massively oversized unicorn, all in oily black, with wild, yellow eyes. Most Corrupted give the appearance of imaginary chiseled pony god statues, but this one radiates real power. Still, attacking another Corrupted in his territory is foolish. After being tossed around by giant hooves with tentacled fetlocks grabbing him before each throw, Chilly is forced to reconsider his first impression. So far, he could regenerate most of the damage quickly enough, and he knows he will win in a contest of stamina, but as he rolls away from a stomp ready to easily crush his skull he knows he might not have the time. Anyway, stamina-based fights between Corrupted could take days.

The Corrupted is simple, however, no matter how insanely strong his Protector form makes him. Chilly is agile, fast, and makes the enemy's legs freeze over and over in order to slow him. Dark blood stains the ground and trees everywhere the eye can see, especially the eye of the Breeder hidden behind a tree. She does not feel threatened, she just does not want to get in the way. After all, neither of the others care to harm her, she is not powerful enough to be eaten, and mating with a strong specimen is only a pleasure.

The Protector loses balance as Chilly slides underneath him and cuts two of his legs off with his talons. A quick kick upwards topples the black unicorn, and in a flash the white Hunter is sitting on his chest, ready to slice his head off. The Protector's legs reform shortly after, but he doesn't make a move, only stares firmly at Chilly and accepts his death.

Death which never comes.

With his mind cut off from the Corrupted hive mind, Chilly can mentally sense and reach out only to others who are in the vicinity. The Breeder wants a strong mate. The Protector is famished and wants a territory. A Corrupted this strong even without nourishment could prove too much for Chilly to handle, but he decides to take a risk. A tiny bonsai tree grows next to the Protector's head with a single glimmering berry hanging from its branches.

Chilly senses confusion from both the Protector and the Breeder, and gives the former a weak mental nudge. A tentacle tongue shoots out from the Protector's mouth like a frog catching a fly, ripping the berry off. A hesitant moment later, Chilly is grabbed from behind by the Protector's prehensile tail and carefully put down while the Corrupted stands back up. He shakes his head. Something was much different when the white Hunter was sitting on him, something inside him was... calmer.

He looks at Chilly and opens his mind to him when the wordless rage and hatred return after the Hunter is not so close.

The white Hunter understands. He beckons the Breeder to approach him as well. With two minds so different and yet so alike in front of him, he easily knows where to touch and what to do. The enslaving presence he once felt is overwhelming, but he is the shield, and he can break it. Both Corrupted's eyes glaze over as their wills snap and reform, but when Chilly is done with them they breathe a sigh of relief. There is something new, however, now. They don't have any overarching sense of purpose, only their basic instincts. Thankfully, there is a leader who can tell them what to do. A leader who might even show them how to think for themselves. A leader whose mark they gladly accept. Thin white veins stain the blackness of the two Corrupted's hooves and reach halfway up their legs. Their King's territory is theirs as well, and they can freely decide whether to leave or to make it their own. With no way to communicate it, their bodies did it for them already.

A new thought forms, new order, a new distinction - The Corrupted and the Separated.

And that's it. No fanfare, no bright light, nothing.

The Protector leaves, patrolling borders of the crystalline woods, and the Breeder follows him just for the change of pace. Chilly feels their essence meshing with his own in the icy ground of his home. It changes him, and he changes them.

The King of the frozen forest awakens.

Perhaps he should give the others names as well? No, all in due time.

Over days, Chilly's territory grows along with his and his two companions' power. It is now far too spread for him to feel his Protector with his mind, but he has other senses. The glazed ground cracks and trembles in the far distance with multiple muffled hoofsteps, alerting Chilly to Corrupted visitors. No doubt the others would sense the intrusion as well and come to intercept. Well, the Protector will, the Breeder might just observe out of curiosity.

As he gallops through the white forest, Chilly smiles. The Separated are inherently inquisitive about everything, like foals who have nigh-indestructible bodies but undeveloped minds. That means whatever is keeping the Corrupted bloodthirsty and feral has a reason to suppress their true nature. Of course, they are primitive and stupid compared to ponies, but millenia of evolution would give that advantage to a species. Plus, some might turn out to really be bloodthirsty and conquering. That, though, is not an important worry now.

Chilly's mad rush bringing him miles away in minutes ends with him analyzing the situation in a fraction of a second and crashing into a Corrupted Hunter at such speed the impact leaves the enemy splattered all over a thick and tall tree. The white King shakes his head, slightly stunned and disoriented. There are over a dozen feral Hunters currently fighting Chilly's Protector, and their coordination betrays that their alpha male used to be a pony with military training.

Teeth, claws, and talons leave deep marks on the Protector's body, and even he has hard time dealing with smaller and weaker Corrupted who nonetheless never overextend during their attacks and give him little opportunity to counter. With Chilly joining the fight, the pace drastically changes. He connects his mind with the Protector's letting him tap into what little he can understand from Chilly's combat experience. The two start fighting back to back and all of a sudden the enemy numbers mean nothing.

One by one, the Hunters fall. When only six remain their alpha's howl signals retreat. Chilly's Protector keels over to rest and let his deep wounds close. The King himself, however, means to make this encounter an example to every Corrupted able to sense it.

No one gets away.

Straps of flesh and pools of blood of the intruders are absorbed by the forest, and Chilly feels something new - an overflow of resources and power. He himself is in top shape even after healing his and the Protector's wounds, the woods produce enough food for the three to last, and there is still enough biomass to work with. Should he allow more Separated to enter the world?

More Separated would mean the need for more territory to feed them. More territory would mean safe havens for ponies and starved Corrupted alike. It would be a tall order, but if he can keep on top of the spread and turn Corrupted into Separated or biomass, he just might finally fulfill the order princess Celestia gave him in the fullest. Chilly knows his limits, though, and as such is aware that he cannot simply let his territory grow forever. He has to find a strategic piece of land which would help ponies recover their diminished domain. Perhaps a strip of land connecting the purple barrier-

He shakes his head, long-forgotten memories resurfacing.

-the lost Crystal Empire and the recovering Canterlot would be a good start. In the name of princess Celestia and her legacy of protecting ponykind, the conquest begins.

Solitary days and nights pass. To Chilly's surprise, there is much less fighting than expected.

The growth of the pale forest is visible from the city of Canterlot high up on the mountainside. Before bothering princess Luna, the captain of the Nightguard sends out a three-pony patrol to investigate.

"Gotta admit, sir, no matter how creepy this place feels compared to the oily black mushroom land we've grown to know and, ehm, love, it is kinda pretty," the newest addition to Canterlot forces, an earthpony barely of age to join, whispers a comment.

"Definitely a nice change of pace. Reminds me of winter. Speaking of winter, this is going to be the first one we can spend on the surface. I'm already booking a trip to Ponyville," the second guard, a thestral mare, nods, poking the strange vegetation with curiosity.

"Quiet, both of you!" hisses a second batpony, their sinewy and broad commander, "This isn't a sightseeing trip. Our short range scrying spells and previous reports said this white stuff is spreading from the north extremely fast. It's taking over the corrupted land, granted, but I for one am not too keen on meeting whatever is taking out the biggest threat to pony existence in recorded history."

"But what if we-" the earthpony opens his mouth.

"Fuck," the guardsmare adds her two bits to the situation.

"I'm flattered, really, but not here. What if we are the first to come into contact with possible hope for ponykind?" the earthpony validates all the rumors about his race being more endowed in the physical department rather than mental.

"Shut up or I'll break your legs!" the commander growls, "Literally here and now. Nopony will send me to a trial. At least THEY will have something to play with while we run."

The earthpony's grin freezes much like everything in this part of the woods as he finally realizes what caught his squadmates off guard. They are surrounded by Corrupted who must have moved while the soldiers were talking, masking their hoofsteps. A black head peeking from a bush here, a stern stare from behind a tree there. A Protector, several Hunters, and something white prowling in the untamed grass. They are outnumbered, definitely outmatched, but not yet under attack.

"How about we back off while we still can? Quietly, carefully, and-" the batpony mare suggests.

"Fast?" the earthpony gets the idea.

"Quick learner, I like that in a guard," the leader allows himself a smirk, "Don't turn your backs to them, just walk away. Hunters love chasing stuff, and a Protector might not attack us if we get the heck away from its territory."

"Who are you praying to?" asks the earthpony the mare mumbling to herself.

"Any deity listening, kid."

They are followed, but not attacked, all the way out of the white forest.

The report about the expedition cut short soon reaches Twilight Sparkle back in Ponyville. Being the purple and smart princess she is, she knows whom to ask for help. Sadly, Nightshade has refused all invitations to a meeting ever since the incident with rogue Hex Guards. The occasional visits from Mana Burn did shed a little light on the Ponyville hive situation, but there was nothing Twilight could do to remedy the situation. Any attempt at reaching Nightshade at her secluded glade ended with her being "politely escorted" out of the core of the Corrupted hive.

Now, though, she has a bargaining chip, one possibly valuable enough to completely turn the situation around. Having previously asked Mana Burn to talk to Nightshade, she is allowed entry into the wide circle of twisted black trees which constitutes the Queen's "throne room". Twilight suppresses a gasp at the sight of the Queen. The equine form of Nightshade has been replaced with one more used to prowling and leaping. Tight, gleaming black musculature looking more like dragon scales has replaced a standard coat, all four legs have become equipped with sharp, flexible claws, and her tail lenghtened into a thick prehensile appendage. Quite obviously, the instincts of the Corrupted Protector Queen looked for a fitting body, and with enough power she could achieve it. The alicorn-sized mesh of dragon and a pony lazily stands up and looks Twilight eye to eye.

"What do you want?" at least the voice hasn't changed, but neither did the animosity in it.

Twilight knows that mentioning anything other than her business would result in her being kicked out, possibly literally.

"I need your help," she says simply, "There is something approaching Canterlot-"

"So you want monsters to fight monsters, am I right?" Nightshade frowns, "So that you don't lose any more of your precious ponies."

What hurts Twilight the most is how content Nightshade is with what happened to her. It means the princess failed to save one of her beloved subjects.

"No. Do you mind if I come closer?" Twilight asks. Nightshade simply shrugs. Her eyes go wide when Twilight wraps her hooves and wings around her, "I am so sorry, Nightshade. For sending you out there, for you being left for dead, for you having to fight every second to stay a pony, for not being there when you needed me, and for making you lose the fight. I am sorry for everything."

Nightshade pushes her away and stares, deadpan. Then she turns away.

"Wh-Why are you- Why are you asking me? Can't your guards deal with it? It's not like I can send my hive to war somewhere."

"Because the corrupted biome spreading from the north strongly resembles the one where you met Chilly."

The coming silence grows longer and longer until Nightshade breaks it.

"My Corrupted will keep doing what they have been taught to do ever since I took control unless you do something stupid, Twilight. Keep them fed and happy, you don't understand what they really are. They were not made to live and prosper, but to destroy and be forgotten. Give them the first, and you will not live to see the second."

"What did you find out?" Twilight asks, suspicion growing in her.

"Take care of them while I'm gone," Nightshade continues, not faltering, "I'll leave Mana Burn here to tell you if there's something wrong with them."

"Nightshade!"

"I might not want to return."

"But you have to-" Twilight stops herself. Asking Nightshade to forget her own needs and do what was necessary was what led to this mess in the first place. With just a little more trust, she will find a way to solve this in the best way possible. Twilight shakes her head, "Nevermind. Good luck, Queen."

Nightshade smiles, and melts into the ground. Seconds later she reforms at the northern edge of Ponyville territory. She COULD, of course, take the short route through the Ponyville-Canterlot tunnel equipped with magic portals, but she decides to observe the surface in case Twilight's patrol missed something important.

By the end of the day, she enters the icy glazed forest north of Canterlot.

She spreads her mind as far as she can, sensing weak traces of "something", but no Corrupted. She smiles to herself. That is all she needs to know.

Her victorious attitude lasts only until she physically hears multitude of hoofsteps galloping her way. A Protector, and a pack of Hunters don't even pause at the sight of her and attack. The Hunters' claws barely scratch her toned and scaly body, but the Protector's blows are vicious. Dodging and weaving, she impales Hunter after Hunter with her tail and steals their essence within the span of the blow. The ones wounded and drained enough retreat, and she is not allowed to pursue by the Protector.

He fights like a Corrupted with a hint of soldier training. Nightshade, the Protector Queen, fights like a trained soldier with all the physical capabilities of the most powerful Corrupted. They exchange blows, but there is only one eventual outcome. Claws on her front leg grow sharper as she wraps them around the Protector's neck and...

...in utter disbelief stares at the see-through ice stalagmite running through her neck, her blood trickling down its length.

A swipe of her leg later it breaks, and the wound in her neck closes. Time stands still, and her mind races.

Nightshade's final decision is to slowly back away from the Protector lying on his back under her.

"...ait...eid..." a weak and wheezy voice says behind her.

"Chilly?"

He is taller than she remembers, as tall as she is. Hair-thin sculpture of ancient Royal Guard armor made from ice covers his body, and he simply watches her, waiting. There is only one thing on Nightshade's mind, however.

She presses her muzzle into the dusting of snow all around, opens her mind, and closes her eyes.

"I will be your Breeder, your Protector, your Queen, or anything you want. Take revenge on me if you feel like it. Just don't leave me again, please. I don't want to be alone."

The white King ponders and wonders. However, before he can resolve the conflict within him for good, a Hunter comes running from the north. Its panicking mind floods Chilly's with images of thousands of Corrupted wrecking buildings made from shiny multicolored crystals and twisting terrified ponies. The Corrupted numbers are unprecedented, and there are only dozens of his Separated, many of which are not in any shape to leave the territory.

He takes Nightshade's neck into his mouth and pulls her up from her position of complete submission. As she awaits his answer, he bows to her like an equal, and speaks in language broken by decades of silence and transformed vocal chords:

"Help..."


	21. We Are the Land: Escape

"Again?" Mirage rolls his eyes as Spring presses her muzzle against a window of yet another bakery. Globs of drool flow down the glass, corroding small holes in the windowsil, "Fine," he sighs, jingling his ever lighter bag of bits. At the rate his money is dwindling, he finds the eventual attack of the 'bad Queen' more and more appealing.

It's not that Spring WANTS him to buy stuff per se, but the joy with which she admires any shiny bauble or an item of food would make a statue crack a smile. They've been walking around for over an hour, and Spring's facination was drawn mostly to colours and scents.

"Don't come crying to me when you get fat and unattractive," he grins to himself.

"Fat bad?" Spring tilts her head, focuses, and her torso shifts towards more muscular and thinner one.

"I don't even know where to start," Mirage shakes his head, "Come on, let's hope the proprietor doesn't throw stuff at us this time," he opens the bakery door, "Greetings, sir, could you please be an exception and NOT throw your hoof-made stock at me?"

A pie whizzes past his head and is caught by Spring's tongues and devoured mid-air.

"Me thank," she licks her muzzle and beams at the baker. These ponies are so nice, they keep giving her tasty things over and over!

"Ummm," the baker offers the usual confused reacion Mirage is used to by now.

"I'm NOT paying for that one."

"So...?" the baker is completely stumped. So are the four customers who one by one peek out from behind the counter where they hastily jumped after Spring's entrance.

"One piece of whatever your special product is. I don't even care what it is, just tell me how much, give it to her, and we'll be going."

"Do... THEY actually eat our food?" the baker leans under the counter for a paper bag.

"My money pouch says they definitely do," Mirage scowls.

"Tasty," Spring sniffs the air, "Smell everything."

"Yeah yeah," the Crystal Guard nods, counting the requested bits.

"Here it is, my special eclair," the baker smiles to match Spring's excited face. She sniffs the bag, examines it from all sides, sniffs it again, and frowns, "What's wrong?" the baker asks in utter disbelief. His renowned creation has been REFUSED!

"No smell," Spring explains, "No taste," she starts erratically walking through the bakery, taking in whiffs of scents. She ends up entering what is likely the kitchen.

"Don't look at me," Mirage shrugs at the baker's questioning glance, "We've been to at least ten other food places and she's never done this. Perhaps she's just full? You know, like a foal who feels sick but can't stop eating because they have no self-control and everything tastes good."

"That was an unexpectedly precise description," the baker grins knowingly, "Are you a father?"

"My marefriend and I are working on it."

"Is that her-"

"NO, I have a normal one! Why does everypony keep asking that?"

Spring walks out of the kitchen, holding a small cloth bag in her mouth.

"What is it, flour?" Mirage pokes it.

"No, vanilla powder," the baker rubs his muzzle, "I think I know what she wants. Give me a second."

He takes Spring's bag, much to her disappointment. Mirage, half expecting her to eat the baker on the spot, breathes in relief. A moment later he returns, holding a table cloth decorated with red and white squares. He ties it around Spring's neck and her eyes go wide. Three tongues dart out and start licking the baker all over.

"No-brbfh-calm dow-brbrbr-I have a wife-mrmmfm!"

Mirage smacks Spring in the back of her head. Her tentacles hesitantly release the stallion.

"I think she likes you," he gives the baker a sadistic grin as Spring keeps looking from the cloth to the baker.

"Uh," the released, heavily breathing and blushing pony huffs, "Whoah, now I understand why some young ponies run away into the wilderness to get some action with one of them," he gathers himself under the gazes of the other customers, "Well, ehm, I think you were right, young guard. Your 'entusiastic' friend here isn't hungry, she just likes the scents. The magical cloth I gave her is usually used to show samples of sauces and spices to potential customers without having to lug jars around. Each square holds a different flavor and scent for up to several days."

"So, how much?"

"Free of charge. I have to save the reputation of my failed eclair somehow. You know, it's specifically designed so that you can taste it only once you bite into it, like an explosion."

"Great," Mirage smiles, this time without any happiness in it, "Now, if I were you I would close the shop and barricade yourself at home for few days because stuff's gonna hit the fan soon. I'm not sure why there isn't anypony running around already and warning ponies, but they should be."

The customers follow Spring and Mirage out and rush off to their respective homes.

"Well, saves me some bits," the guard gives a sad glance to the money pouch now hanging around his neck.

"Bit money," Spring mumbles.

"Yeah, you need to do something useful to get coins and exchange them for stuff you want."

"Work..." she could get all the shiny stuff if she had enough of the yellow 'bits'. All she needs to do is to help ponies somehow then, "Where help?"

"What?"

"Work help where?"

Mirage stares. Then he gets the dumbest idea any pony ever had including those asking 'Why did this pineapple give me a wedding ring?'. But hey, this day has sucked for him enough, why shouldn't he let the curse spread around a little? He recalls an elderly lady berating him when he was looking for a job.

"I can take you to the employment office. You are SUUUURE to find something to do there."

Thank stars Corrupted have no notion of sarcasm.

The tall, steel grey building at the end of their journey welcomes them about as heartily as expected. Ponies gasp and run away, guards surround them until greeted with Mirage's badge and explanation, and the crystal pegasus himself looks at the calling number above the office door. There are dozens of ponies in the waiting room due to the loss of a part of the Empire in past weeks, and he finds the lowest issued number between slips of paper thrown on the ground by hastily evacuating ponies.

"Now," he shows it to Spring, "When this number appears above the door, you go in and ask the lady for a job, understand?"

"Yes."

"Eeeeexcellent," Mirage sits down, awaiting the inevitable heart attack of the old crone who once told him he would never make it as a guard and should 'go make money as a Corrupted bait so that real ponies can do their job'.

Spring goes inside.

Silence.

Spring comes out five minutes later, holding a form in her mouth.

"An application for Cloudsdale weather service," Mirage reads in utter disbelief, eye twitching.

"Nice lady," Spring chimes.

"Blrlblrlg!" Mirage foams at the mouth and kicks the door to the office open, "I HATE YOU!" he yells at the grey-maned mare behind the table.

"The department of complaints is three doors to the left," she says matter-of-factly without giving him a glance, "Also, I wasn't thinking you would take the 'Corrupted bait' career seriously. Well done anyway, mister Mirage."

Painful murder is the clear wish in Mirage's expression. He yells:

"Spring! Come here and eat her!"

"No. Nice pony. Gave job paper."

"Hmm, still about as successful with mares as before," the office lady rings a bell and the calling number changes, "Now, please leave. I have a job to do, and I intend to do it well. Have fun in Cloudsdale."

"You... youuuuuuuu!" he glares, ponting at her with shaking hoof.

"If you have any business with me then please go outside and take a number."

The door slams shut with hatred burning like a thousand suns.

"If the other Queen actually attacks the Empire, I'm joining her."

The grumbling and harrassed guard accompanied by the young Queen set out again, each one in a distinctly different mood.

A giant cloud hovers over the nothern part of the Empire, rainbow coloured streams flowing from its sides into hungry mouths of wide sewers grates in the industrial complex underneath. The city of Cloudsdale, home to the most remaining pegasi and its weather-based architecture is only accessible through tall spires bearing wide spiral starcases, flight, or long shafts with elevators reaching up to the visitors' entrance. Mirage, deciding to take the 'on hoof' route to save some money, steps off the crystal platform onto the cloud bedding of the city itself.

"Whzlbz-aah!" Spring, following him, falls through the cloud without any resistance. Only her tail stabbed in the crystal floor like a harpoon keeps her from dropping all the way. She pulls herself back up and pokes the beginning of Cloudsdale street with distrust, eyes darting from Mirage back to the cloud fluff, "No walk."

"Uhh, yeah. Pegasi can walk on clouds due to their hollow bones. We are pretty light."

"Come," she waves Mirage back, "Lick."

The pegasus returns with curiosity and immediately chokes as Spring shoves her tentacle tongues down his throat. They retract before his face can go blue from the lack of air. Licking her lips, the Queen's body shifts, becoming thinner, leaner, and more fragile. Few seconds of focus later, she steps on the cloud again with utmost care. It wobbles underneath her, but holds.

"Wooow. I must... wow, just wow," Mirage stares, "This is really bad, honestly. Cool, but super bad."

"Me bad?"

"Nonono, not you. Come on," he nods. Spring follows as they walk through the new world completely unknown to her, "Cloudsdale folk believe the Corrupted can't get up there no matter what, that they would just drop to their death from the sky. Stay close to me, this might come as a rather devastating shock. At least it did to me, and I'm from the Empire, not Cloudsdale. I'm sort of used to pissing myself at the idea of your kind getting through the barrier. Let's hope these guys took prince Shining Armor's broadcast seriously."

The Cloudsdale pegasi, none sparkly and shiny like Mirage, rush off whenever they spot Spring. She doesn't have much time to be bothered, as the longer she stays up here, the worse she feels. It is all for the shiny coins. Once she has the coins, she can go back down to the real world. A formation of pegasi clad in blue and gold passes above them.

"You know, when I was young I wanted to be a Wonderbolt. The mares are HOT! Never got even past the preliminary exams though."

"Da Wunderplots?" Spring asks, unable to find a meaningful explanation in her stolen memories.

"Exactly," she gets none, though.

The flying squad circles through the sky and lands, surrounding them.

"What is IT doing here? Shouldn't the royal couple be accompanying the 'guest'?" an obviously annoyed mare scowls at Mirage.

"Look, SHE is another guest, not such high-profile one, and, believe it or not, she is here to get a job with the weather service."

"You're kidding," she gives him a stare so deadpan it could kill a wok.

"Actually, I am. It started as a joke that backfired horribly. Can you just tell her off so we can go back down? I can't, it would be like kicking a puppy that can fuck you, eat your corpse, and then transform it into a copy of itself."

"You... serious...?" the leader coughs, unable to comprehend what's going on.

"Just, I don't know. Tell her to move a cloud or something."

"I... I don't even," she finally gathers her wits and stands tall, "You!" she barks at Spring.

"Hello!"

"AAH! It can talk?!"

"Focus, mare!" Mirage facehoofs.

"Right, right. Can you actually fly?" she flaps her wings, jumps up, and hovers in the air.

Spring tries to imitate her. Growing wings is easy, flapping them as well, but as soon as she reaches about two-pony height and stays there for few seconds her entire world turns around, complete confusion overtakes her, and she falls back down on the cloud.

"Sick..."

"The weather service is required to move clouds all over the sky," the mare follows Mirage's script, "If you can't fly, you can't join. Simple."

Getting up on legs wobbling like noodles, Spring summons her ground tentacles. Up here she has no land to nourish them, nothing solid she could feel underneath, no real world. The tendrils reach up towards the closest small cloud hanging above, and stop just inches below it, swinging wildly in an attempt to shove it away.

Various members of the Wonderbolt squad chuckle and cover their mouths at the pathetic attempt.

"Sorry," the leader uncharacteristically pats Spring's head, "I know how it feels. Why do you need a job anyway?"

"Bits," Spring offers the mare a sniff of her food cloth scarf thingy, "Nice smell buy."

"You know," the mare turns to the rest of the squad who are blushing ar giggling, "That's way too adorable to be healthy for my heart. You, Crystal Guard, get her off the streets! You can thank me later."

"I just might," he breathes a sigh of relief, although Spring's drooped ears and a little pout put a damper on the mood, "Come on, I'll buy you something nice back down."

And he does. A sparkly brass bracelet decorated with colourful glass resembling gems. It might have cost him only few bits, due to being a cheap fake. but to Spring's open eyes it's treasure. She's also happy to be back on the real streets, not only thanks to not feeling sick anymore, but also to all the colours being back, not all white like in the clouds.

"Sure wish my marefriend was this easy to please," he grumbles, "but noooo, she needs a real diamond so she can feel pretty. Pff, if she needed a diamond to be pretty I wouldn't have asked her out in the first place."

Spring understands close to nothing from Mirage's monologue aside from him being unhappy, so she licks his face. Ponies seem to like that when she doesn't overdo it.

"You happy now!" she concludes as Mirage wipes strings of black drool off his face.

"Yeah, yeah."

"HEY, MOM, THAT'S HER! THAT'S HER!" they hear yelling, and an excited foal rushes past Mirage and hugs Spring's leg.

"Well that's a new reaction," the guard mumbles, blinking at the sight of a foal jumping around the Corupted Queen as if on a trampoline, "Who are you?"

"My name is Ripe Soil," an earthpony mare followed by a positively huge stallion introduces herself politely, "and this is my husband Ready Plow."

Tears streak from Mirage's eyes as he bites the inside of his mouth not to start laughing.

"You," he snorts, "Ehm, you are from the overtaken part of the Empire, right?"

"Exactly, we lost our farm some time ago and got cut off from our colt during the escape. We thought we would never see him again," she looks at the ground, "But after few days he returned, saying a Corrupted mare named Spring brought him to the barrier safely. We thought it was the prince's visitor so we were on the way to give her our thanks."

"Uh, yeah. Business first, miss Ripe, ehm, Soil," Mirage can't help glancing at the mare's wide hips and her menacing husband, "Spring here believes prince's visitor is evil and is plotting to threaten the Empire. If I were you I would hole up for few days with a good stock of supplies."

They look at Spring jumping around like a rodeo pony with the little colt on her back.

"One more minute?" Ready Plow asks with unexpected gentleness.

"Yeah," Mirage smiles.

Thick, black veins start cutting through the crystal streets of the Empire.

"Aaand, here it comes. Hope the army had enough time to prepare," Mirage twirls his spear, "If anything happens, hide behind me. Let's get you home and have the soldiers and the royals deal with this."

"Ok-ok-okay," Ripe Soil looks around and presses her side against Plow's, "Weed Sickle, come here!"

"Yes, mom!" he jumps off Spring's back and onto his mother's.

Corrupted Hunters form from the semi-liquid veins, large shapes of ponies crossed with lions immediately aiming towards the nearest prey, in this case - Mirage. One's charge is stopped as he impales himself mid-jump on Mirage's spear. His completely undisturbed attack ends with a swing of his paw hitting Mirage's head and knocking his helmet off, and him off his hooves.

"Hey, big guy!" Ripe Soil waves her hips at the Hunter, breaking his focus for a second. A second Ready Plow uses to buck up with both his hind legs and slam them into the Corrupted's muzzle. Three more finally materialize, surrounding the group.

Spring is not a Protector. She has fought only once, and that was in blind instinctive panic. When she sees Mirage and the huge hunk of a stallion called 'Redeeplou' or something under attack, she jumps at one of the Hunters, hooves flailing, to get his attention. Her attacks is accompanied by a simple wish for the others to be safe.

Growls and snarls come from all around, and the Hunter Spring jumped on is torn to pieces by hungry mouths absorbing the dying Corrupted's essence. Twelve Hunters wearing what seems to be a poor replica of Mirage's Crystal Guard armor are standing around, crushing the other Corrupted erupting from the spreading darkness in the ground.

"What are those?" Mirage jumps up on his legs while Plow shoves his wife and son behind him, "And why are they helping?"

"Mine!" Spring beams.

"Uhh..." the crystal pegasus looks into the distance where the spire of the Imperial palace looms on the horizon. Dozens, hundreds, possibly more black shapes are closing in. The only thing even barely slowing them down are the unlucky ponies too slow to get out of the way being toyed with.

"Close your eyes, honey," Ripe Soil tells Weed Sickle.

"RUN!" Mirage screams. He doesn't have a plan other than to get the hay away from the incoming tide. The army must have screwed something up, maybe they didn't have enough time, maybe they didn't consider the warning he sent to be serious enough... or maybe it didn't matter at all.

After initial reluctance and confusion, a pair Spring's Hunters take each of the ponies on their backs, and flee as fast as they can. Outrunning other Corrupted does not seem to be the problem. However, the darkness of the other Queen's influence taking the Empire's streets over spreads faster, and soon the group has to avoid more Corrupted being born straight from the shadows all around.

"How is this possible?" Mirage, balancing on the Hunters' backs is looking around, "Spring!"

"Much power. Infinite," she answers. That's all she can gather from the situation. The pressure of the Queen's power grows drastically without slowing down in the slightest. The Corrupted, however, feel strange - incomplete. The Queen somehow got hold of nigh-endless amount of energy, but has no need for a real hive anymore. The Corrupted around are just hollow husks, extensions of Queen's will without any of their own. Something catches her attention before she can formulate a coherent answer, "Pink shield where go?"

The barrier signalling safety for everypony, the thing every Imperial citizen learned to instinctively ignore faded right in front of their eyes almost without being noticed. It dawns on all of them - the darkness is spreading too fast, and the shield that could have at least kept Corrupted INSIDE while ponies evacuated is gone.

There is nowhere to run.

During the mad dash, Mirage was navigating the group south, as running north behind the barrier would only lead to them freezing to death and starving in some blizzard. That led them towards the escape route which could in the worst case mean they would avoid that and go south. With Spring's protection they might find a safe place somewhere in the woods. Now, though, the plan is gone.

"Spring, can you fight?" Mirage asks, jumping down from the Hunters' backs.

"Bad plan," she shakes her head, "Too many."

"You ate some of them and got stronger before, didn't you?"

Spring ponders the idea for a second, then a Huntress walks over to Mirage and kisses him, not stopping despite his struggling.

"What's going on?" Plow barks at her.

"Memory take combat training," she explains and redirects the flow of knowledge gained from the Huntress to the others. She can analyze it later, now the warriors need to grow and gain reflexes and muscle memory which is not theirs. Every single Hunter and Huntress summons a black spear and assume a defensive position. Mirage, allowed to breathe again, just stares in shock. Spring yells at him to be heard over the growling of the approaching horde, "LEAD!"

She can understand, she can relay orders.

Mirage barks few defensive pointers and the first of hundreds of Corrupted are speared and slashed to bits by sharp tentacles Spring's Hunters are using in a surprising combination of pony and Corrupted combat strategy. Spring's hooves, melded with the crystal streets, pulsate as the biomass of the fallen is absorbed by her and rearranged for good use.

She nourishes her small group, but she needs more subjects to even slow the attackers who seem to be coming indefinitely. There is no way for her to create different personalities or detailed minds in the chaos, so she clones some of her hive's members with the overflow of stolen energy. Out of sheer desperation, she uses what DNA she stole via contact with Mirage to create his Corrupted copy.

"Uh, hi," the Crystal Guard jumps away from his black doppleganger. It doesn't talk, only grows a spear from his leg and joins the defenders. As Spring focuses, the ring of her hive expands, allowing Mirage to only watch in case an enemy breaks through and attacks the ponies or Spring and yell relevant orders.

Spring reaches her limit. At the moment, more than twenty of her Hunters is beyond her reach, so she focuses solely on keeping the excess energy flowing into them to keep them healthy.

The enemy tide seems to finally understand that breaking through is out of the realm of possibility, and back off into a swarming circle, leaving empty space around the defenders.

"Okay, are they trying to starve us? That seems to be the logical next step," Mirage recalls his lessons of military strategy.

"No," Spring shakes.

No, the street trembles.

*Thud*

*Thud*

*Thud*

A building-sized bull-like Corrupted, all bulging muscle and armor walks down the long street, absorbing the lesser Corrupted he squashes.

The mindless horde only takes it, as they have no self-preservation instinct or will. Their only role is to not allow the defenders to escape, and to feed the stomping colossus.

"What the fuuuu-?" Mirage's mouth is closed mid-word by Soil's hoof.

"Foals present."

*Thud*

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWRG!"

the colossus roars, cracking glass in all the windows around.

Temperature suddenly drops so much Mirage can see his breath crystallizing in the air.

The horde's attention turns towards something else as an explosion near the titan clears a wide circle from the Corrupted.

All Mirage can see are two dots, one black and one white, staring the gigantic creature down.

"I gotta try making this when I get back to Ponyville," the black one whistles in admiration.

"Abomination..." the white one snarls.


	22. We Are the Land - End: Crystal Heart

"Not to take away from the spectacle, but that was pretty cool," Mirage gasps as a giant icicle forms on the ground near the titan and shoots its neck clean through. The wound closes instantly without slowing the damn thing in the slightest, but Mirage is impressed nonetheless.

He shakes his head. The moment of safety as the horde's focus is shifted elsewhere can't last long. All Corrupted around are only watching the giant swipe at the white pony-shaped dot in the distance responsible for summoning and shooting more and more icicles into various spots on its body. Mirage doesn't need any further proof that the Corrupted around are less than golems completely controlled by something the attention of which is currently occupied by the titan's fight.

"We should get away," he whispers, unwilling to break the careful peace.

"Yessss-" Spring's head spins and she keels over, caught in the last second by Mirage. Him being smaller than the Queen doesn't help. The transfer and balance of power between her hive was exhausting even for her. How the enemy Queen can muster thousands upon thousands of new, although incomplete, Corrupted is beyond her.

"C'mere!" Ready Plow, much more expansive than Mirage, and still smaller than Spring, slings her over his back. Spring's tail lenghtens to allow her constant contact with the ground being transformed into the other Queen's territory.

The colossus' stomp razes nearby buildings. Everything is quiet for few seconds, then a distant, high-pitched 'WHEEEE!' comes as the black pony comes swinging on long ropes wrapped around its tower-thick neck.

"What now, what now, what now?" Mirage bits his lips. They can't fight their way out. There is too little of them, and while the horde isn't moving, they literally cannot push through the mass of bodies.

Or can they?

"You," he taps on the side of one of Spring's Hunters and flinches as he comes face to face with an open jaw full of sharp teeth, "You can grow weapons, can you make a tower shield?"

It just keeps staring.

"Spring?" Mirage turns around only to see the young Queen hanging limply on Plow's back, "Crap..."

How do they communicate with ponies? Spring was relaying every order, but Corrupted can push those through to her as well. She must be conscious, only possibly unable to control her physical body, so he has to find a way to get his request to her.

"This is gonna suck," he finds the Huntress previously absorbing his combat experience, takes her head in his hooves, and gives her a french kiss so deep both earthponies with them blush while focusing on several things from his military history training. He wakes up a minute later on his back, gasping for breath and futilely trying to push the mare's heavy body off himself. In response to his resistance, she finally gives up and assumes her position in the defensive circle, giving him lusty glances and licking her mouth. Mirage stands back up, wondering if his experiment worked.

It did.

The circle of Corrupted turns to a square, each defender growing the requested tower shield stuck to various parts of its body. The shields interlock, forming a perfect wall of steel -well, Corrupted biomass- followed by the already used spears sticking out in the front. The famous turtle formation, although admittedly lacking the vital top part, starts inching forward towards the titan, stabbing the enemy Corrupted without mercy.

Mirage ponders if the lack of cover from above is going to hurt them, but since Corrupted don't seem to be using projectile weapons or be able to fly, he shrugs it off. He thought about moving AWAY from the fight, but decided against it. Their only hope lies with the idiots brave enough to take the titan head on.

"It's not like it would stop the freaking giant's stomp anyway."

"-"

"Spring?" Mirage leans closer to the semi-conscious Queen.

"Not alone."

The turtle moves, the Corrupted stab, and the horde yields.

"What?"

"Not only me, bad Queen, ponies. More."

Mirage's head turns so fast his neck cracks. An armored Hunter from the front line FLIES into the air and lands way away amidst the horde which immediately swarms around him like ants around a dropped candy, with about the same result.

A unicorn-shaped Protector towering above the Hunters moves for the second swing. Mirage jumps to the empty spot in the formation, and faces the new enemy, spear at the ready. He knows he's going to become a splatter of gore when the next blow comes, but if the Corrupted break the line then they all die.

"Hold formation!" he orders when he hears the shifting of Spring's Hunters around, "Yeah, asshole? These guys are MY unit!" he growls.

He is SHOVED back with ease. Not punched, kicked, or thrown, just shoved as if he is nothing, and he notices something strange on the leg pressed against him. It is decorated with thin white veins coming from its hoof up. Light colors are something never seen among Corrupted.

"Ooooooooooooooooout of the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

The black figure completing its swing after its ropes were torn from the titan's skin smashes the crystal street nearby, rolling and cursing.

"Now you've pissed me off!"

The barrage of ice shards assaults the colossus again. From this close, the Crystal Guard can see a white 'pony' with blue hint to his coat summoning more and more projectiles.

"Uh..." Mirage very smart. Mirage know what to say. Mirage not surprised at all, "Uhhh..." his second attempt doesn't end better.

The creature rolling from the deep scar of shattered crystal is a Corrupted mare, cracking her neck and shoulders.

"Chilly!" she yells at the white one, "Cover me for a second, got guests here!"

She is up and in front of Mirage before he can react. He stares at the mare larger than he is, with definite erotic subtext of her entire lean body Corrupted achieve so easily. He stares at the black draconic scales surely responsible for her not being a smear all over the street. He stares at her watching Spring behind him with fangs bared.

Still, she can talk and is apparently an enemy of Mirage's enemy, which has to count for something.

"I-" he starts.

"Nope, this one's too weak. Never met a Breeder Queen yet, though. It seems Ponyville isn't the only place cooperating with us."

"Ponyville?" Mirage raises an eyebrow.

"Later!" she looks around as the giant roars again, "Got any idea what all this is about?"

"Well, I-who are you-"

She looks at Crystal Guard armor.

"Report! Now!" she barks with absolute authority of a commander used to being obeyed.

"Private Mirage, ma'am! I met Spring today before all this started. She warned me there was another Queen trying to destroy the Empire, ma'am. I informed the army, but this happened anyway, ma'am!" Mirage salutes, his training taking over completely, "I wasn't aware Corrupted were more than evil scourge before today, ma'am! The horde is coming from the direction of the Imperial palace, ma'am!"

"Alrighty then!" she pats his back, "The Separated, the Corrupted with white legs, are your friends. Help them push through. We're going after the source," shadow blots the sky, "SCATTER!"

Nopony needs more orders when a gigantic hoof wrecks the street where they stood a moment ago.

The horde, seeing the defensive formation break, charges and breaks against groups of the strange Corrupted now protecting Spring's little hive. Without the need to push through the enemy, they join the Separated in the fight. Mirage is useless in a combat of these proportions, but he can still yell out commands and spot who needs help.

First, they need to stay away from the fight with the titan.

"Spring, the Separated either belong to the mare or to the wizard. Can you, I don't know, tell them we need to move. Like with your mind?"

Spring tries, and her weary mind touches the other Queen currently hacking away with her claws at a giant leg. She is immediately overwhelmed by a sharp and focused will which takes her over and leaves her with a message which she relays to the letter.

"Chilly and the Separated can understand you," comes from Spring's mouth.

"Oh, okay," Mirage takes a deep breath, pointing north to where the tip of the palace pierces the horizon, "RETREAT! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Thanks to the power of the Separated who cleave their way through the assorted enemies, the outer ring of the defenders pushes through the ever-replenishing horde.

"NO!" a shocked screech comes from the white mage. Everypony turn their head to see the black Queen misjudge her swing through the air and fall straight into the giants mouth.

"Crap, MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Mirage stabs his spear blindly at a Corrupted getting through the temporarily frozen defenders.

Some of the Separated melt into the ground, and Chilly roars in unbridled rage.

It starts snowing.

No.

Frozen water floats through the air swirling aroung the titan like a tornado of sharp edges.

It roars again, but this time there is no challenge in it, only pure agony. Blood gushes from its mouth, turning streets and houses dark red, chunks of flesh and oily hair splatter around like gory meteors. The blender of ice doesn't stop, but the titan's regeneration fueled by more and more enemy Corrupted being dissolved and used as nutrition is too much.

Breathing heavily and spitting blood, Chilly's assault ends with the titan standing...

...and healing rapidly in front of their eyes.

It gurgles, blood gushing from its mouth again. The thick neck is cut open from the inside, several tentacles shoot out and hook to the edges of the wound. More and more tentacles pierce the titan's skin and lodge themselves there like harpoons.

They all heave at once.

The neck collapses inside itself, the tentacles turn to blades and spin.

With another dark shower, the enormous head splits off the body and crushes the facade of a nearby house. The Protector Queen jumps out of the neckhole of the beast keeling over, tendrils retracting into her body. She lands and trots towards the stunned defenders, both Corrupted and ponies.

"When we're back in Ponyville, I'm making my own titan. Better, with blackjack and hookers," she grins.

"Ngh ngh ngh ngh ngh ngh-" Mirage whines when she passes him, hips swaying.

"Name's Nightshade, Queen of the Ponyville hive. Good job helping Chilly with leading the guys. Here's your reward."

"Wha-?" Mirage's open mouth is immediately filled by a tentacle shooting from Nightshade's nethers and filling him with tastes and scents making his head spin. He gulps down a glob of spicy liquid and gasps for breath as his brain lights on fire. The desire to immediately submit to his Queen is quenched by Spring's pained groan from behind.

"Hmm, just shrugs it off," Nightshade flashes him a dirty smile, "I can make you feel this good any time you want, pretty face."

"HAPPILY ALMOST ENGAGED!" Mirage facehoofs, mentally scolding his younger self screaming at him that this is all he used to want several years ago.

"Stop..." comes a raspy growl from the white Separated named Chilly, "No time..."

Nightshade's attitude completely changes, giving Mirage a clear clue that while the black Queen can do what she wants and mess around, it ends when the white King speaks. He also feels it is not forced, but a state of affairs chosen by Nightshade of hew own free will.

"Let's go!" Nightshade orders, jokes and teasing long forgotten, "The horde will be back soon."

The Separated, Corrupted, and ponies trot north as fast as they can, knowing the enemy Queen will recover and drown them in her mindless golems soon again.

With streets empty aside from half-twisted ponies, the combined forces rush north towards the palace. They know they should help those who might not have fallen to the corruption completely, but they also know that stopping the source of the horde's recovery is more important. Street after street, they can't allow themselves to stop and assist even a single drooling and mumbling pony lying around. The helplessness makes Mirage bite his lips, but he knows better than to endanger everything.

They come upon a metal barricade blocking the street with armored ponies watching their approach, sporadically reporting their progress back to somepony. Clanking of weapons, screaming and yelling is coming from further away, likely from the other side of the barricaded area. The palace square would be easily visible if the barricade wasn't in the way. The upper floors of the palace, and the thick black tentacles squirming up its crystal walls are easy to see and definitely don't fill Mirage with determination.

A pink mushroom cloud accompanies an explosion coming from palace plazza.

How to break the ice between the survivor group and the Crystal Guards behind the barricades?

Mirage walks up on three legs, holding his badge up for everypony to see.

"Private Mirage. Seventh division of the east Guard. Got three survivors with me as well as some, ehm, guests."

Hushed whispers come from behind the barricade. A weary but firm voice is heard barking orders, and a blue-maned unicorn head wearing a decorated helmet peeks out.

"Your Highness," Mirage plants his face into the crystal street.

"Attention!" the white unicorn orders and takes his helmet off, revealing a rugged and handsome face of a middle-aged soldier. His firm stare envelops the entire group and he sctatches his thin blue beard, "Report!" his voice is just as commanding as Nightshade's was.

"I sent the warning about the prepared attack," Mirage says and the unicorn nods, "It came from her," he points behind him to Spring lying on Plow's back, watching the speakers. She slides off her comfortable back bed, and takes few shaky steps towards the barricade.

"...hello," she gives the ponies a weak smile. Mirage pats her side with his wing and continues.

"She jumped through the barrier when the other Queen was let in. I stayed with her because I couldn't let her just run around the Empire. She seems to be a Queen like the enemy one, but, well, on our side. I also think she's new to this job or something. Her little group protected us when the attack came but then the horde transformed into this huge bull that would have wrecked us if it weren't for the others," Mirage nods towards Nightshade and Chilly.

"Yes, yes," the Protector Queen steps forwards, "enough of this. I doubt we have the time to recap all that's happened now. Who are you and what's going on, soldier?"

Mirage, the farmer family, the soldiers, and even the unicorn himself stares in shock. He raises his hoof and the angry mumbling of the surrounding ponies stops.

"My name is Shining Armor. Prince Shining Armor. Well, Emperor Shining Armor would be technically correct, but I prefer the old title. And who might you be, miss Corrupted Queen?"

Nightshade grins, blinks several times, then looks at Shining Armor quizzically.

"I recall something from my history lessons. Shining Armor, THAT Shining Armor? Twilight Sparkle's brother Shining Armor, or just a family name?"

"Yes. Now, as you said, we have little time. Introduce yourself, now!" Shining says, rock solid.

"Nightshade, Queen of the Ponyville hive. I must admit, Twilight left out what a hunk you were."

"Ponyville hive? You speak as if my sister was alive..."

Nightshade gives him a sly grin.

"Can we talk AFTER we wreck the Queen kicking your ass? And yes, Twilight Sparkle leads the remnants of ponies living in a small town called Ponyville. She, Chrysalis, the queen of changelings, and princess Luna are alive and thanks to me, mostly, reclaiming small parts of land. My friend Chilly here," she nuzzles the white Separated when he comes closer, "has managed to secure a strip of land between this place and Canterlot, and I am sure his hive will allow for a friendly visit, but first... you know what to do."

"Let them in!" Shining commands.

"But sir, it can be another-" says a soldier next to him.

"And? We are LOSING, in case you haven't noticed."

The group walks through a stretch of the barricade shoved aside. Nightshade looks Shining up and down.

"Looking pretty good for your age. Two hundred something?"

"Being married to the alicorn of Love has its advantages. I am by no means unaging or immortal, but I'm reaping the benefits of my teenage self's charm."

"I can see that," she licks her lips.

"Don't even think about it. My wife can be EXTREMELY jealous."

A pink beam of energy comes from a window of a building overlooking the barricade, aiming somewhere north.

The pony encampment is a stretch of a wide street walled off on both sides. One way in is the entrance through which the group came, and the other is sectioned off with much stronger barricade leading to what must be the palace plazza.

"So, about the army, your Highness?" Mirage, propping Spring up, asks.

"Just call me sir, private," Shining sighs, "Our forces walled the Crystal Heart plazza off. We were ready thanks to your warning. The bad part came when the black stuff just spread through the streets behind us and everywhere else. Some Corrupted tried materializing here, but Cadence's and Flurry's magic melted them on the spot. The enemy Queen eventually got the message and just moved her forces around. There are tens of camps like this blocking the streets, but it's pretty much pointless. The Corrupted can move anywhere they want."

"No Corrupted," Spring says, woice weak but recovering, "No real. Things. Long legs."

"Uhh, yeah," Mirage coughs, "From what I gathered these are not Corrupted, just basically golems doing whatever the Queen wants them to. They have no will or self-preservation instinct. As Spring said, they are more things than living creatures. When we, well - Nightshade and Chilly, were fighting the titan the horde just stood there mostly as if the Queen couldn't handle all the commands."

"Titan?" Shining raises an eyebrow, "Ohhhh, that might explain the break we've been having for past half an hour."

"She perfect body. No perfect mind," Spring says, "She perfect how?"

"Oh dear," the prince takes a deep breath, "It must have something to do with the Crystal Heart. She, what's the best expression, absorbed it?"

"Can we have a look?" Nightshade asks, "Is there a vantage point or something?"

"No," Shining shakes his head, "Any command post we tried to erect was immediately torn down by tentacles. Flurry and Caddy fly up from time to time and hide in the upper floors," he points to the buildings on the sides of the street.

"Hmm, why didn't the Queen just make her pawns appear there and drop down on you?"

"No offense," Shining gives Spring and Nightshade a meaningful look, "but she's not very smart. If she was we wouldn't be here anymore."

"Good," Nightshade looks up the nearest building's wall. Tentacles sprout from her back, impale themselves in the wall, and shoot up with her in tow. She climbs into the nearest broken window. From up there, she gets a good look all over the Crystal Heart plazza.

The glamorous conflux of streets, the circle plazza in the center of the Empire is all covered in black pulsating mass of tubes and tentacles. Bulges which must be wombs pump out fake Corrupted after Corrupted the waves of whom break against the pony barricades surrounding the abomination. Tendrils spread through everything they can reach - buildings, palace, the tall and thin spire in the center of the plazza. Why the Queen hasn't just rammed the barricades open with her numerous new limbs is beyond Nightshade, but one would do good not to question their luck.

"A Breeder Queen," Nightshade mumbles, "If she has an enormous source of power to control then her instincts must have taken over, at least for now, and she is doing what Breeders do best - just pumping out Corrupted after Corrupted. Can't even form them properly, but can give them whatever shape she pleases. If she gets enough time to get used to it, THEN she'll start thinking again and wipe this place clean."

She jumps out of the broken window back to the camp, street cracking under the impact.

"Could you please not do that?" Shining rolls his eyes, "The repairs are going to cost us a fortune already."

"A good way to keep those from the fallen parts of the Empire busy, sir," Mirage grins and withers under Shining's murderous glare.

"Alright, with us here, we can launch a counterattack," Nightshade commands, "Got any mortars and explosives?"

"Only magic," Shining sighs, "We had Wonderbolt squads pelt the thing with napalm. It shot out a huge net what dragged THEM into the still burning flames and... laughed. There are several unicorns forming tactical spells, but they are beyond exhausted, so its mostly up to Cadance and Flurry Heart who recover faster to use magical artillery."

"Up for a suicide mission, emperor?" Nightshade bares her fangs.

Shining closes his eyes.

"I suppose so," he bites his lip, "We can't evacuate anypony. We can't outlast 'it'. We have little to no reinforcements to wait for. All we can do is go out with a bang."

"All of you heard it!" Nightshade laughs triumphantly, "I get to bang your emperor if we get out of this."

"Heh," Shining smiles. It's lacking hope, but the silliness is something.

"You, vegetable!" she turns to Spring, "Give me your hive. We're gonna need everypony we can get," the twenty armed and armored Hunters stand at attention, earning respectful glances from the Crystal Guards, "Chilly, you got my back?"

"Until the end..."

"Prince, tell all of your soldiers surrounding the damn blob to wait until Chilly and I go in, then aim everything you've got at it."

"Yes," Shining salutes and Nightshade requites the gesture.

In less than two minutes, all the forces are ready.

"Ready, Chilly?" Nightshade stands behind the barricade, soldiers in ranks behind her. The white King nods, and snow comes falling from the sky, "Hammertime!"

The attacking Corrupted are crushed by the heavy steel barricades as those shoot out into the plazza. Dozens are but black smears in mere second, but the hundreds more, if they even can feel fear, are preoccupied with the Protector Queen charging straight ahead. The center of the plazza, the thin overgrown spire, is where the 'brain' of the enemy Queen must be. Like a bowling ball, Nightshade breaks through the horde, but eventually stops and has to fend for herself. She is not alone, though. The half-real Corrupted break like glass when touched by Chilly moving around the battlefield like a shadow.

Mirage waves at Weed Sickle's family to follow him into the rubble of a nearby broken house. Spring wobbles there as well.

"Look, I'm a Crystal Guard so I have to go, but you don't. If by some miracle we win then you won't be among the casualties. If we lose, then... you know. Two more civilians mean nothing here. So stay here, and if you see an opening then run the hay as far as you can."

Ripe Soil and Ready Plow nod.

Spring, however, stares at the battle.

"No work. Much power," she bites her lip.

"HA! FOCUS!" she throws her forelegs to the sky, "Where eyes? She can no sense me. No Nightshade. No Chilly. No their hive. She need eyes. They occupy eyes. We sneak," Spring points towards the center of the black mass.

Mirage squints after the outstretched hoof. Something bright and shiny pokes out of what might, if only he got closer to look, be the front half of a distended Corrupted mare's body. That means the entire black mess gooping and tentacling over the Crystal Heart plazza is the enemy Queen's... lower half.

"Can she sense me?" Mirage asks.

"Yes. You weak, no important. No fear."

Spring can still barely walk. If one or two of the Corrupted look her way she can't fight.

"I'm coming with you."

"You help move, fight?"

"I'll do what I can. My emperor himself, plus his wife and daughter are out there. Granted, he is an excellent fighter and they are alicorns, but I couldn't live with myself if I just stayed here. Let's go."

"You weak, fragile. Drink," Spring sits down, spreads her legs, and kneads her pillowy teats.

"That's gonna turn me into one of you."

"Drink."

Mirage breathes in and out, lowers his mouth to her, and suckles a long, black nipple. Ripe Soil and Plow look at Weed Sickle who seems to be much more interested in the live battlefield. The crystal pegasus can feel the taint burning through his body, but continues to gulp down the black syrup as if his life depended on it, which it actually might.

He is stopped by Spring. The reflective body of all crystal ponies is lost for him, grey and dim, but the fire flowing through his veins is burning away all the exhaustion of the day. He can fight, he can make a difference, and he will.

For the Crystal Empire! For princess Cadence's super MILF body! For Flurry Heart's still MILF but less so body! For his Emperor! For his-!

His internal pep talk stops as he realizes there is an overwhelming chance his marefirend is no longer alive, or a pony.

For her anyway, because she was the one to give him a chance when no other mare did.

"Let's go, Spring," he presses his side against the bigger mare.

"Lesgo..." she mumbles.

The sneak by the edge of the plazza, inching away to be on the opposite side from Nightshade and Chilly. It takes time, and while Mirage feels as if he could pick Spring up and just run towards the center figure, they move slowly not to be the slightest threat.

Eventually, they walk up from behind to a torso, front legs, and a bright blue crystal fused together, with head watching intently the black and white figures cleaving deep scars into the black biomass and Corrupted. Spring raises her hoof, a long spike slides out of it, and stabs the torso clean through.

The mutated Queen howls, thrashing around in agony as the Crystal Heart inside her pulses with unbridled power her hurt mind can't control anymore. Spring stabs again...

...through the Queen and through the Heart.

Her eyes light up. She is soaring on surges of power, able to feel every single Corrupted in the Empire and far beyond, and immediately understands she cannot ride this high for too long. She does not need to, though, she only needs enough to break the other Queen's control.

The semi-real Corrupted wriggle and shatter mid-strike as Spring uses the power of the Heart to burn the Queen's will away and absorb her experience and power. She takes and takes, much more than her body should handle, but she grows. Thousands of Corrupted minds form within her, all those the other Queen tried to create at first and gave up on after failing. With all this power she could make an entire civilization, but... what would be the point of a copy?

The best time of her life was when she explored things for herself with Mirage by her side.

She raises her hoof, looks at the cheap, shiny bracelet, and smiles.

All around, shaking survivors are holding weapons aimed at her. The Queen is gone, the Corrupted are gone, all their mass absorbed by her. There is only Spring, brimming with power beyond Nightshade and Chilly's wildest dreams, holding the chipped Crystal Heart in tentacles sprouting from the clean crystal street.

She looks at her chest where the power seems surging the strongest. A hoof-sized, glowing piece chipped off of the Heart is embedded there.

Spring looks at the held crystal, raises her hoof, and strikes it.

"NO!" Shining Armor and two pink alicorns by his sides yell.

A tiny chip break off of the Heart again. Spring picks it up and presents it to Mirage.

"The diamond your marefriend wanted."

She turns away from the stumped semi-corrupted pegasus about to cry liquid joy to Shining Armor and his family.

"The Queen is gone, and her hive is mine. We will help you recover everything you have lost due to her," Spring bows, her red and white 'scent scarf' flapping around, "I can feel and understand your fear, but I would like to, if you don't mind, become your guest as 'she' should have."

Shining Armor steps up and takes Spring's hoof to his.

"Welcome to the Crystal Empire, Queen Spring. Sorry if it's a bit of a mess at the moment."


	23. Manehattan Sunrise: Twilight's Entry IV

Shining Armor.

Shiny.

My BBBFF.

I wish paper could hold everything I felt when I was told the Crystal Empire still existed, when I was told Shining and Cadence were still alive as well as little Flurry. Well, I say little, but from the standpoint of alicorns twenty or so years make no difference. The massacre of gargantuan proportions within the Crystal Empire will be an event for the history books, but even Nightshade recounting the piles of dead and semi-corrupted ponies couldn't dampen the pure joy of discovering my brother to be still alive.

Handsome, too. If something happened to Cadence then I would jump his-

Nevermind. Let's just say I love my big brother very much and on so many levels that others consider it unhealthy. They just don't know what true love is.

I went up north immediately after recieving the news, leaving Chrysalis in charge of Ponyville. After two centuries of cooperating with her I was almost one hundred percent sure I wouldn't return to a town full of green coccoons. Well, I was right, and I returned two weeks later to a completely normal and recovering Ponyville. It is so strange, knowing that all the changes we may be doing now will come to bloom only after at least fifty years. Two more generations before there is even enough of us to use the entirety of the new territory, possibly another century or two before there is anything even barely resembling the kingdom of Equestria again. Of course, that is only if the current favorable state of affairs continues.

Crystal Empire is even worse off. From the tens of thousands ponies living there, most are gone now. The Breeder Queen's purge obliterated over three quarters of the population within hours. We wondered about the reason, as Corrupted have until now preferred to twist and change their victims rather than kill. Granted, the amount of semi-corrupted ponies left after Spring absorbed the insane Queen's power was more than the entire Ponyville enclave, but it was still just a drop in comparison to the dead. It happened during a normal day, and without the possibility of widespread warning getting through to the population. The Queen's forces mercilessly killed everypony in the streets, on the lower floors of buildings, and any pony they had laid their eyes on.

All that without a real reason, a complete change from anything we've seen thus far.

Spring was my companion throughout most of my visit to the Empire, and it was refreshing to see somepony interested in EVERYTHING. From history, through math, to technology and social customs, Spring loved hearing me and others talk, and in return she assisted me with more experiments.

My theories about Corrupted Queens and Kings have proven only partially correct, as they have been previously only tested on Nightshade, who is an unseparated, fully corrupted pony. Chilly or Frostbite, on the other hoof, is a carefully crafted instrument for dominating Corrupted, at least according to more of the deciphered journal of princess Celestia. Speaking of the two, Chilly is starting to recover his speech, and both he and Nightshade spend a lot of time in Canterlot these days. After their return from the Empire, Nightshade used her Queen sovereignity for the first time, and forced her hive to spread her territory towards Canterlot. Now, the Ponyville hive's northern border is met with the strip of land belonging to Chilly's Separated.

For our future it means that ponies can start small settlements between Ponyville and Canterlot if they desire to. That, however, is still decades away.

Back to the experiments, though. I was fascinated by Spring's ability to create more Corrupted from basically thin air, and my research shown that a phrase "from thick ground" would be much more correct. The theory of Corrupted seeing matter and energy as one held steady. Just like normal Corrupted gradually transform the land around them into their territory and can use anything tainted as nutrition for getting stronger or recovering faster, Spring, as a Breeder Queen, can do it to a ridiculous degree. Breeders are basically barrels for transforming energy into life. With just some stallion's seed, they can give birth to as many Corrupted as their body tells them to just by draining the transformed area around them of all nutrition. Spring is basically a gigantic battery, similar to the Crystal Heart itself. Where the artefact softly collects energy from ponies all over Equestria or even further and releases it as waves of positive force, Spring can absorb anything and reforge it into, well, Corrupted.

However, the Heart should have been drained by such overuse. I subjected it to experiments in the past, and came to a definite conclusion that the Heart's capacity wasn't THAT massive. It just works as an energy transformation device. So where did the insane Queen get so much power? Spring answered that one after many tests. At first, we believed Corrupted to be just another race. After Nightshade's rise, we believed they transform territories and become parts of them just like trees and grass. Now, we know for sure that the Corrupted and the planet are one. Spring can literally manipulate life force permeating the entire planet if given enough power serving as "intermediary".

This means that whatever created the Corrupted must be powerful enough to affect the entire world. Why the Corrupted sprung up in Equestria, or precisely inside a huge bubble in the west Celestia's journal calls The Barrier, is yet unknown, but I have my theories. Theories that are based on Spring's recollection of what she calls "the voice", which is a force that each Corrupted has inside making them see ponies as enemies. Several experiments of Spring restoring her connection to the Corrupted hive mind later, we discovered that ONLY ponies are regarded with such hatred. Griffons and other intelligent races are a nuisance or food, but not direct enemies. Uncivilized creatures are mostly untouched by corruption and ignored by Corrupted unless they are tasty.

The biggest breakthrough, however, was the notion that Corrupted, in addition to clouds, heights, and flying, are repulsed by salt water. This means they aren't just nigh-indestructible killing machines, but that their physiology is based on something with adaptability and the ability to recover. This also explains why their territories naturally turn into more humid places unless directly controlled into a different direction like Chilly's ice forest. As stated before, they are partially plants and mushrooms, and while salt water isn't exactly deadly in an encounter, it drastically lowers their ability to spread the territory and absorb nutrition. This led me to the idea that they might have not spread behind the ocean, and that the Equestrian continent is the only hotspot of corruption. That also means we could probably ask griffons for help if we found a way to get radio equipment to the coast.

Sadly, that is impossible, at least for now. Nightshade and Chilly currently cannot control much more territory. There is a limit of minds a pony head can understand, feel, and categorize before losing itself, and both are reaching it. Spring could easily move her territory to the east, but she is helping rebuild the Crystal Empire and ensuring its safety. Plus, she is fascinated by pony society, so prying her away from the Empire would require a rather large crowbar. Previous experiments, however, prove that high-tier changelings can assume control of Corrupted and change their thought patters by asserting themselves as a Queen or King. Well, just Queen. There are no male changelings with such mental capabilities, and Chrysalis isn't too keen on birthing Queen-grade changelings, as it is in their nature to fight for leadership.

That ability, though, reminded me of two beings I used to know who could still be alive. I believe more and more that there are isolated pockets of survivors which might be led by immortals such as myself. One of them was Chrysalis' general called Shadowstep. She and several gifted individuals used to reside in Manehattan. Possibly, in conjunction with the salt water thing and the city being near a river delta, she just might still be alive and some ponies around as well.

The second possible candidate is a dreamling by the name Guiding Light. Dreamlings are a special kind of changelings who arrived to this world through a rift in space from an alternate reality where Nightmare Moon created them by twisting changelings, and devoured the entire world. Unwilling to die of starvation on a lifeless rock, their queen used what little magic she had to open a dimensional portal and lead few dozen dreamlings through to a better tomorrow. Since they were willing to do just about anything to not anger the society, AND were able to eat the emotion of fear they naturally caused, they eventually found their place in a solitary village called Pine Hills on the other side of the Everfree forest. Ponies accepted them in the end, and if there is a pocket of survivors, then it is there. Knowing what Nightmare's plans lead to, they have been immense help at stopping Nightmare at every step after it was purged from princess Luna and my long gone friend Rarity.

This leads me to the final part of this entry. What could be powerful enough to unleash something like Corrupted on the world and control them in such a way, plus hold a raging hatred towards ponies?

Let's take it from the top. The most powerful beings in existence are the three gods of Equus - Discord, the god of Chaos and Creation, Nightmare, the god of Order and Destruction, and Harmony, the god of Evolution, Progress, and existence inbetween birth and death.

Discord disappeared after my friend Fluttershy's death, having parted ways with ponies on amicable terms. While the creation of new species, and one so devastating as Corrupted on top, is definitely within his power, his previous experiments lacked a certain order, and the Corrupted seem too focused on one thing - a tool rather than something for Discord to watch in order to amuse himself through the ages. I might be an emotional fool, but I believe from the depth of my heart that Discord is not behind this.

Nightmare's destructive nature fits with the Corrupted's order to eliminate ponies. Plus, ponies have defeated Nightmare's avatars on multiple occasions, so the hatred should be there. Still, according to ancient history, there is a pact between gods limiting their power to affect Equus. As long as the other gods exist, no one of them can use their full power to subject the planet to their "nature". Nightmare's limitation, as very painfully discovered by heroes long dead, is to act only through a possessed avatar who can wield only a fraction of the god's power. The last known Nightare's host was a hippogriff named Straw Basket, and he got caught in the fight between the three gods which culminated in Nightmare fulfilling its goal of... something, and leaving him. Straw Basket was left with selective memory loss and couldn't tell us anything we didn't already know. He lived his life fully and died of old age without Nightmare attempting anything ever since.

This leads us to the final god - Harmony.

I believe, although I have nothing to go on outside of theories and circumstancial evidence, that what once used to be our misunderstood saviour is now the instrument of our destruction.

There is very little left from princess Celestia's journal, but considering the march it describes leads towards the place where all three gods clashed in the final recorded battle, I think it will give at least a little credibility to my suspicions.

 _\- The journal of Twilight Sparkle, entry 409_


	24. Manehattan Sunrise: Dreamlings' Fate

"Hey, mom," I enter the meeting room in the underground Ponyville enclave. The town on the surface is growing from tool sheds and farms to livable place, but a small part of me still loves the underground. It's likely the pony part, not the Corrupted part.

"Mana Burn," Twilight Sparkle smiles at me, lifting her eyes from a map of Ponyville on a large circular table in the middle of the room, "You're back!"

"Yeah," I nod and hug Twilight when she stands up and stretches, bones creaking, "You've been overdoing it while I was in Canterlot, haven't you?"

I know my mother. When she sets her mind to something, sleep, fresh air, and movement are the least important things on her list. My brother Knowledge must be busy on the surface not to have talked her into going to bed days ago.

"Maybe a little," Twilight shrugs, "You know, being immortal still doesn't mean days have more than twenty-four hours."

"Come on, we are in the best shape since I was born, mom. Ponies love you because they can breathe fresh air without fearing for their lives these days. What's bothering you now?"

She sighs.

"I can still barely believe this is happening. After a century of darkness - this."

"It's as you used to say - the darker the night, the brighter the dawn."

"That's what my mentor princess Celestia used to say. Still, this feels unreal."

"I know you well enough to spot that's not the issue."

"Well," she shifts uncertainly on her hooves, "I just want to press our unexpected advantage as much as I can, but I'm afraid that I'm going too far too quickly."

"Should I remind you that it is because of you that ponyville ponies are still alive? I believe in your decisions and so does everypony else."

"Thank you, Mana," she chuckles, "although I'm not sure you'll be exactly ecstatic about what I have in mind, because it concerns you."

"Oh?" I raise my eyebrow.

"Considering the Crystal Empire still stands, barely or not, there might be other pockets, or even cities full of survivors. The groups we know about have gathered around immortals such as myself, Luna, and Chrysalis, and I used to know others who could have possibly survived Equestria being run over."

"You want me to find some of them?"

"Yes. I'll give you a copy of an old map relevant to your trip. It's a map of central Equestria showing towns, cities, valleys, crevices, and other geological obstacles. Some things have changed since it was made, but it should be sufficient for you to find a small village called Pine Hills, that or its ruins. It isn't actually that far from here, you'll just have to cross the Everfree forest, so that's the difficult part."

"I'm not afraid of wild Corrupted, to be honest," I admit. Being transformed into one of them while retaining most of myself sort of dulled the fear that I cultivated since I was old enough to go to the surface.

"The Everfree used to be a deadly place even before the corruption spread. Corrupted might not bother you since they will likely think you're one of them, but there are bigger and deadlier creatures like manticores, hydras, or tentacled creepers... well, unless the Corrupted eradicated those as well. Who knows? We can't use Nightshade's Corrupted for scouting purposes yet, and ponies cannot handle hostile Corrupted in any real numbers, that has not changed."

"Yeah, sure I'll go," I reassure her, "Though if the ponies are still alive in Pine Hills then they won't like ME much either."

"You can talk, the wild ones can't. Mentioning me should help as well. Guiding Light and I haven't exactly ended our relationship on the best of terms, but she's never done anything to harm ponies."

"Guiding Light?" the name doesn't ring a single bell.

"She is similar to Chrysalis, only leads a different breed of changelings. She and her hive found home in Pine Hills ages ago, liked the seclusion and open ponies, and if there is a chance of survivors being around then it is there."

"So, I just find this town, and when they stop yelling and throwing stuff at me I tell them I was sent by you, right?"

"Pretty much, although the hive used to be in the cavern system underneath the town. If I remember correctly then the entrance was through a cellar in one of the houses," Twilight nods, "My scrying magic doesn't reach past the Everfree these days, so I can't check even if the town still stands."

"Okay," I accept my mission, "Mind if I have have a break for few hours? I want to talk to Knowledge and some friends. I didn't take the the teleporter from Canterlot either, so I'm a bit hungry."

"It's fine," she waves her hoof, "If they lasted until today, a day or two more isn't going to change anything. Go when you're ready."

"Sure thing, mom."

I bow, which always makes her frown and rustle my mane, and leave. A day full of rest is all I need, and then it's up to the wilderness again.

Fresh and relaxed a day later, I walk out of the main Ponyville entrance.

Outside.

Nearly three decades of living underground, and I still shiver when I take a deep breath of surface air. The promise of a new adventure, and also a new danger, makes my spine tingle. This time, however, I am safer than ever before. Nightshade's territory reaches all the way to the Everfree forest, granting me free passage, and the Corrupted inside the forest should ignore me as long as I don't do anything too intrusive.

I can sense several Hunters and a couple of Protectors patrolling the Ponyville borders as well as the wild Corrupted deeper in the forest. They make a move as soon as I leave the safety of our home, but nothing outside of me hearing crunching of snow disturbs the peace of the forest. The winter is in full blast, but while the sky above Ponyville is kept partially clear by the pegasi, the woods surrounding me are covered in a white blanket. So, while the farmers in Ponyville can still make sure we eat well through the next few months, I am breaking my way through knee-high snow.

One thing to be thankful about - as a Corrupted I barely mind. Not that I am immune to the influence of the elements, but as full of energy as I am I won't need to bother with freezing being dangerous for a while still.

I studied the old map Twilight gave me, and I had a good sense of direction even before being tainted. Now I easily stay on a straight track through the Everfree.

Half a day later of me trudging through the snow, leaving a nearly perfect straight groove behind me, I stop and examine what has been bothering me for a while now.

There are no Corrupted around.

No Protector keeping borders of a territory safe, no Hunters roaming in search for intruders, not even a solitary Breeder hiding in a cave somewhere. I cannot see the shapes of minds directly, nor at a too great of a distance, like Nightshade can, but I should at least sense if there is anything in the area of half an hour's worth of walking distance.

Nothing.

To be honest, the eerie silence inside my head is unsettling.

So, what could be the reason for Corrupted to avoid this place...?

I decide against taking the long route around this unremarkable stretch of the forest without any tangible threat present.

Reaching a shallow valley gradually sloping into a ravine bottoming with a frozen river I have to cross, I notice large cave mouths on the other side surrounded by deep marks in the snow. From this far away I can't identify the imprints, but whatever made them had to be enormous.

The crunching of snow in the dead silence resonates through the ravine. All that's left for me is to cross the ice, and I should be over halfway through the Everfree. I carefully stomp at the edge of the frozen river to test if the ice is strong enough to carry me.

The tapping of my hooves is joined by loud growling coming from the cave mouth on the other side.

A lizard-like head larger than me comes out of the darkness of the cave mouth. Then another. And another. I stare at the beast many times taller than I am with three mouths full of sharp teeth able to swallow me whole. Three long necks come from its bulky and scaly body, and both its front and back legs end in claws just like a dragon's. Three noses sniff the air, and then the entire mass of tough scales and bulging muscles barrels over the ice towards me.

At least I know I can cross the river safely if this thing doesn't eat me.

So, a hydra.

My Hex Guard training didn't cover wild beasts that much, but from what I know the damn thing can regenerate rather quickly, although not even remotely as fast as a Corrupted, can breathe acid, and its scales can deflect even bullets. The good thing is that it's not too fast or agile, and its legs are too short to grab me. Well, that's what the long, prehensile necks are for.

I really should just grow claws and run over the ice, but I'm up for testing what this body can really do.

First mouth slams into the ground right as I jump away, the other two follow suit, all ending full of snow and frozen dirt.

Okay, hydras are not smart.

A wide sweeping blow from one neck sends me flying away, like getting hit with an unstoppable hammer.

Alright, keeping an eye on three threats at once isn't that easy.

I reinforce my guard-issue spear with Corrupted biomass and wait for the next blow.

"Whoooahaaa!" I fly again, my spear propped in an anti-charger position failing to even scratch the damn thing. Thankfully, the swings of the hydra's necks are more an inconvenience to my resilient body than a real threat, althought a normal pony would be a red paste after one.

Fine, killing this thing would take too much energy and effort. Time to run.

Sharp claws on all four of my legs allow me to run freely over the ice, and...

...several seconds later my world goes dark, hot, and wet.

Tumbling over the hydra's tongue, every acidic touch burns my skin and its breath stings in my lungs. My claws score deep grooves in the tongue and I gather my bearings. The hydra's roar of pain shuts my ears down and makes my world swim, but I grip my spear firmly and point it upwards. The hydra won't swallow me, it will try to chew me first.

Another roar of pain.

Burning blood everywhere.

Thrashing of my surroundings.

Me flying like a spat out ball.

Cold.

"Owwww..."

My vision is still shaky as I stand up, once again back on the icy surface of the river and red like a nightmarish vision of a gore enthusiast. Corrupted regeneration is draining my energy, but is counteracting the effects of the acidic blood, saliva, and, well, everything else efficiently enough.

One of the hydra's necks is being limply dragged by the body, the two working heads closing in on me.

Alright, a blow to the brain through the soft palate of the mouth works wonders.

"Two to go, you miserable freak of nature," I growl to myself.

With the hydra not catching me off guard from behind this time, I can finish the second mouth off quickly enough.

"Are you really that dumb?" I stare in disbelief as the hydra, trailing TWO dead heads now, tries to eat me again for the third time. I guess size and toughness can suffice if there isn't enough intelligence to go around.

I calmly jump inside the hydra's final head as it comes close, wait for it to try and chew me, and wake up from my stunned stupor few seconds later again, now outside and watching the body spasm and finally stop moving. If only the thing didn't thrash so hard it nearly knocked me out every time...

"Whoa!" I look at my legs, completely hairless and steaming in the cold air. Too much of the hydra's acid must have made me look like a plucked chicken. Good thing my eyes are still working and that there's little to none internal damage. When I enter a tainted landscape again I should easily recover from this.

The hydra's territory can't have been too widespread, as about an hour of slow trot later I look like myself again while walking through familiar black forest and feel Corrupted in the vicinity. There is a Breeder mare nearby, perhaps I could have a short rest?

I recognize the familiar thirst growing in my suddenly parched mouth when I reach a wandering, chubby black mare with heavy teats hanging between her hind legs. She smiles at me invitingly and wiggles her rear. When it's clear to her I have no interest in that, she lets me cuddle up with her under a tree and suckle the tainted sweetness from her nipples. The confused expression of Corrupted when somepony DOESN'T want to have sex with them is priceless.

Rested and relaxed after a short nap, I leave her sleeping form behind me, ready to leave the Everfree forest.

The village of Pine Hills can't be far.

On the bright side, it is not. On the less bright, perhaps even dusky, side, there is no village.

The mix of rotting wood and crumbling masonry ahead must have once served as the outside walls of the town, but now it just makes it clear that what I'm entering are only ruins. A quick look around reveals all the buildings are mostly just rubble. What tips me off that not everything is as it seems is the sense of emptiness inside my head, because Corrupted presence should be rampant in a place with so much cover and places to serve as a nest.

The dreamling, or whatever they were called, hive is supposed to be underground.

* * *

 _Corpses._

 _Pegasi, earthponies, even a unicorn here and there, all dead._

 _Changelings bearing blue hue to their chitin plating as opposed to the green tint of Chrysalis' hive fighting against wave after wave of Corrupted._

 _Failing._

 _Corruption spreads, twisting ponies and bolstering the ranks of attackers._

 _Dreamlings decapitating foes and past friends alike before being overwhelmed and devoured._

 _Death. Endless death and new life springing in form of new Corrupted bursting from the ground._

* * *

I wake up, trembling and huddled up against the wall of a nearby house. Forcing my will onto my body again, I get up. Was that what is keeping Corrupted away? It felt like a foreign presence inside my head, just like whenever Nightshade experimented with taking over my body. This, however, was not gentle, like a forceful command to stay away or die.

However, just as changelings are masters of mind control and manipulation of lust and love, dreamlings were supposed to control fear. If I ever needed a clue that something is here then my panic attack was it.

Something like a sigh makes me turn around just in time to see a thin limb ending in claws score a groove in my chest. The wound heals in an instant, but I don't have time to observe because the silent attack continues.

Three attackers.

That is all I gather in first few seconds of dodging attacks from enemies who move completely soundlessly and circle around, aiming for my blind spots better than any soldier. I dodge, attempting to weave in a blow with my spear here and there, but the black pony-like creatures react perfectly and avoid everything I can send their way.

The onslaught stops.

They look like changelings, if changelings turned into Corrupted. They are stick thin, but their speed, agility, and strength prove no signs of starvation. They circle around me, prowling like panthers with their mouths open and showing sharp teeth. Every single one of them possesses a pair of blue, glowing eyes.

"Is any of you Guiding Light?" I say to the absolute silence. They twitch when I talk, but keep circling me. How they are so quiet in every movement is beyond me.

Thank stars for Corrupted reflexes!

I jump aside as the ground underneath me breaks with tentacles and get away only with deep cuts in my side.

Noise. A gurgling noise finally joins my heavy breathing and stomping the snow.

I have seen three Corrupted Queens and Chrysalis herself. This... thing looks like an amalgamation of the two forms, and I am pretty sure I have found Guiding Light. I am also absolutely positive that there is not going to be talking of any sort. The dreamling Queen isn't as tall as Chrysalis or Nightshade, or possibly it is just the posture, but her jerky movements and pained groaning make me shiver. I stare, paralyzed, at the sight of what happens to a changeling queen if she succumbs to corruption. Thankfully, we have had no information about transformed alicorns or other immortals since nothing bad has happened to my mom, Chrysalis, or Luna, but this is horrifying.

She looks... liquid, similar to the Corruptor Queen we defeated in Canterlot, and yet I get a throwback to the stories about zombies and other terrors of the darkness.

* * *

 _Dreamling after dreamling falls under the onslaught of Corrupted, taking blows for ponies to ensure their escape._

 _Pointless. The unending black tide consumes them all._

 _A dreamling queen, chitinous plating shimmering with protective magic, blades growing on her legs, and moving like a shadow on the battlefield cleaves through Hunters and Protectors alike._

 _In the end, only she and last three of her offspring stand, surrounded by growling horde. She understands the power the Corrupted are using, are made from. After all, their transformation happened in the same way._

 _She calls upon the divinity inside herself, and the bits and pieces in every Corrupted around, draining what she can and infusing it into herself and her warriors._

 _The distinct powers of two gods clash violently inside her, but she can stay in control long enough._

 _Long enough to wipe the scourge that has devastated her home from the face of Equus. Thousands upon thousands of Corrupted led by Queens clash against the four dreamlings. Neither the Queens nor their hives get out of Pine Hills._

 _In the end, the territory transforms into a black, tained swamp anyway just from the sheer amount of corpses._

 _The dreamlings collapse, fires of their will burning out. However, the power they drained from the Corrupted and used against them twists them completely._

 _Only one instinct remains. To protect their home and wait for-_

* * *

Guiding Light opens her mouth and gurgles.

The corrupted dreamlings attack again, and I feel my strength wither away with no apparent reason.

The vision showed me Corrupted and dreamlings are the same result, only reached through different means. If it wasn't a straight up lie to make me lose my resolve, then I cannot win this fight. The dreamlings in the vision were more powerful, though. Perhaps after so many years they lost themselves to the corruption and their skills are dulled.

I still can't fight.

They move as one, cover each other's backs, and I cannot hear even the wind whistle while they attack. In one instant, the sinews on my left hind leg get shredded to ribbons. Tough skin of the Corrupted has no value here, so I refocus my energy towards regeneration rather than defense.

A mistake.

The next swing I don't dodge almost cleaves my body in two. Regeneration works miracles again, but that's about it for my energy reserves.

Alright. RUN!

They are faster.

I barely feel their hits through the beating of my heart, but none must lethal because I am still running and leaving a bloody trail behind.

My vision grows darker and darker.

Run, run, run!

It is my duty as a Hex Guard, as a citizen of Ponyville, and -most of all- as a good son not to make my mother's life more difficult. After all, Twilight will kill me if I fail to come back to her.

I stumble over something.

Rolling in the snow and hitting something hard, I want to get up, but my legs fail me completely. No surprise, because only strings of tendons and cracking bones remain. One snaps, and I fall back in the cold snow.

Death doesn't come.

I wait and wait until I'm at least able to see properly, but there is nothing going after me. Sapping nutrients straight from the ground, I realize I must be so far away from Pine Hills that this is another corrupted territory.

"Hmmm," I examine what I tripped over in my mad gallop when I can carefully walk. Some sort of steel rails, "Train tracks?"

Well, I have no idea where I am, only that I ran in some direction away from the Everfree. With no better guidance, I pick a direction and follow the ancient train tracks. Corrupted vegetation gives way to flat dark steppes, only tall grass with little to no trees anywhere in sight.

That, and what has to be the ruins of another village the tracks are going through. A steel plate lying nearby and reading "D-DGE J-CT-N" is my only clue. Sadly, the map Twilight borrowed me covered only only central Equestria, so my best guess is that I ran somewhere southeast from Pine Hills.

I shudder at just the blurry memory.

Finding a ruined building providing at least some shelter from wind and snow, I recount my situation. I am weak, I need rest, badly, and I can barely move. Right on cue, as I start thinking, the adrenaline powering me until now finally goes away.

"I'll just rest he-" I collapse, sleeping even before my body hits the ground.


	25. Manehattan Sunrise: Real enemy

"Arghhhh!"

I croak when darkness lets me go and I can enjoy the misfortune of my beaten body screaming for help. Good thing - I woke up after being savaged by corrupted dreamlings, bad thing - ouch.

The remnants of a ruined house must have worked well to keep me safe from the elements, because despite my Corrupted endurance I doubt I would have survived the frost out here in the flatland. The thin dusting of snow underneath me soothes my overused and burning muscles, and the slowdown of blood flow might have saved me from bleeding out.

Can I get up?

"Ooof!" spikes of pain from my whole body culminate into four points of agony as I stand up, careful not to shatter my bones.

"Hmm, nearly cleaved in half, most tendons on hind legs cut to shreds, lost about three ponies' worth of blood, and still here and breathing although regretting it considerably," I look around. It's getting dark which means it must be late afternoon. Unless I slept for multiple days, which I wouldn't have survived... probably, I recovered from wounds as fatal as they can be without being completely lethal extremely fast, "All in all, it could have gone worse, but also better."

I should find some Corrupted biomass to absorb in order to recover at least enough to survive a pack of Hunters finding me. Thick strings of my drool melt the snow underneath me as I'm forced to imagine juicy black flesh torn by my teeth, sliding down my throat, and the absorbed energy coursing through my veins, revitalizing the...

...monster I am.

I cringe.

I stare at the ground.

The area around is tainted, but I simply cannot absorb any nutrition. Perhaps my body's vision showed me the only possible way to heal myself? To physically devour another Corrupted?

My mental stomach revolves. My physical stomach growls in joyful expectation.

Fine, time to hunt. Let's just find a solitary Corrupted and see where I go from there.

Prowling the ruins of "D-DGE J-CT-N", I have to rely only on my enhanced senses, no Corrupted hive mind or the flow of energy through the tainted soil. Disregarding the reason for my hunt, I feel more like a pony than ever since my transformation. No multiple minds in my head, no senses spreading over the area the size of a small city, nothing aside from sight, touch, smell, and hearing.

Screw taste! The last thing I want to know is how it is going to taste when I cannibalize another living being.

The afternoon flies by. Why is this place so barren?

Crawling on what had to be in the past a bell tower, careful not to slip on crumbling walls, I look around from the roof. The wild forest on the horizon must be the Everfree, which means that way is west. To the north, there are more forests, but none look as menacing. East is dominated by flatland filled with tall grass and taller hills far far away, but south... south looks completely dead. Even the grass gradually fades into rocks and dead landscape. I recall mom talking sometimes about some place called the Badlands in southern Equestria which was supposed to be just a rocky landscape. The distant hostile land could definitely be it.

A movement in the corner of my eyes when I return to my hunt makes my body take over and pounce instantly.

A scrawny Hunter, one looking exactly like one would imagine somepony living in a place nopony other wants. Even in my sad state I overpower him easily.

"I'll make it quick, that's the least I can do," I mumble. He gives me a confused glance which last only a second before I grow a blade on my leg and cut his head off, "Damn, this was harder than I thought."

Killing a defenseless being, even a Corrupted, EVEN in a do or die situation, feels awful. I let my soldier training take over and steel my mind against what I'm about to do.

It is necessary. There is no way around it.

I rip a chunk of meat from the Hunter's chest before the body starts dissipating. Over and over, I plunge my teeth into the corpse of my own kind. Cannibalizing everything I can bite through - flesh, bones, sinews, liquifying pieces, I am finally done. It can't be right, but everything I eat tastes like the mushroom goop we used to eat in abundance in the enclave before the surface reopened to us.

Disgusting, but I am still thankful for my head masking the real taste of tainted flesh.

A shuffle.

A crunch.

A gasp.

The shocked gasp follows my jump behind the nearest piece of rubble. The plan is to assess the threat which must have moved in while I was engrossed in, and grossed out by, eating.

I twist mid-lunge to avoid a blade swishing past my ear and swipe my front talons in its direction. A pained groan and quick movement away are my reward. Hoofsteps are moving towards my cover. I have about three seconds to think.

Multiple hostiles using weapons, steel weapons. Blades the Corrupted grow on their body are tough, but sort of fleshy so they make a distinct lack of noise when they miss by a hair. Steel, however, I remember well from my Hex Guard training. This means thinking beings. A Ponyville patrol I don't know about, maybe?

"Hey!" I shove my head out from the cover and recieve a blast of scattered mortar as a bullet takes a piece out.

"Lyam, keep it busy!" a female voice barks, "Ava, let's flank."

I can hear yooooou!

Granted, a wild Corrupted would not understand a thing though. This means I'm going to have a moment of time with only one enemy which will be 'occupying my attention'.

A griffon barrels past my cover on three legs, kite shield held in his talons covering him. My tail twists around his hind leg and pulls. He loses balance and I charge, taking him down on the ground. I transform a front leg back into a hoof and punch.

He starts coughing as I knock the air out of him, roll, grabbing him by his neck with my free talons, and use his body as a cover against the remaining four shocked enemies. The enemy group consists of one male griffon, currently choking slightly in my grasp, one female hippogriff, aiming a gun at me, a male unicorn, horn glowing with magic, a muscular female earthpony, trying to flank me from the side, and a male pegasus, wearing blades on his wings.

Gotta admit, I like the diversity. The 'killing me' thing puts a damper on my mood, though.

"Move an inch and I'll rip his head off," I proclaim clearly. Well, as clearly as I can without having any real time to regenerate my wrecked body after eating.

They freeze, and I hear the unicorn whisper:

"It talks?"

"Yes, I do," I say, "And by my authority as the high commander of Ponyville enclave Hex Guard and the second in command of Queen Nightshade's hive I order you to lay down your arms."

Confusion crops up in the faces of everypony aside from the hippogriff who looks shocked. The others feel as if they have no idea what's going on while she seems to know, but doesn't believe her own eyes.

"Wait," the hippogriff orders in a voice that is used to being obeyed. In contrast, her pistol aimed at my head doesn't relent. Her eyes narrow, "Let Lyam go and we can talk. You are the first intelligent Corrupted we've encountered, and I've been around a friday or two."

She looks between thirty and thirty-five, well-trained, and yet something feels off. Their clothes and saddlebags look different from anything usually worn in Ponyville.

"How about you first tell me who you are and where you're from?" I squeeze the griffon's neck a little to stop his struggling, "You are not from Ponyville or Canterlot, and I am not aware of any Crystal Empire patrols this far south."

"The places you are talking about should not exist anymore," the hippogriff's voice betrays her puzzlement, "We are from Manehattan."

I chuckle and decide to drop some names.

"Well, according to princess Luna, queen Chrysalis, princess Twilight Sparkle, and the royal family of Crystal Empire neither should Manehattan."

"Weapons down!" the hippogriff orders her group and nods to me, "Your turn."

I let the griffon go and get ready to jump at a moment's notice. Thankfully, they don't attack again.

"So," I start, "Let's start over. My name is Mana Burn, princess Twilight Sparkle's son and one of the twin leaders of Ponville enclave Hex Guard."

"But you are a Corrupted," the hippogriff comments, "and a talking one."

"That's a long story. In short, the Corrupted hive around Ponyville got under control of a pegasus mare by the name of Nightshade who got turned into a Queen. In few short months the ponies of the underground enclave and the hive taken over learned to exist together. It's not perfect and the ponies are still scared, but it's better than risk being eaten whenever walking on the surface. I will happily tell you as much as I know from the events later."

"Alright," she nods, "My name is Desert Shade and I lead this group of mercenaries. We work for griffons in Manehattan and are returning from an exploration mission in the Badlands."

"So Manehattan still stands then?" I brighten up, "Princess Twilight would love to estabilish contact with whoever is in charge there. We have managed to secure a part of central Equestria as well as a route to the Crystal Empire. What we are trying to do now is to find a way to the coast to ask griffons for help in restoring Equestria."

They stare at me as if I was completely crazy. Then Desert Shade bursts out laughing. It goes on and on and on. Tears streak from her eyes and even her companions give her strange looks. Finally, it stops and she wipes her face.

"Ask griffons for help. Oh boy, that got me good. Well, mister Mana Burn, the situation in Manehattan is a little different than what you and princess Sparkle might expect," Desert Shade takes a deep breath and makes several signs with her talons aimed at her group, "Secure the perimeter and let's break camp here. That building looks like a decent shelter," she points towards a house nearby that looks structurally sound.

"The nearest Corrupted is a Protector patrolling about an hour away east from this town. It is not heading this way," I focus and say my piece. I am getting stronger quickly. Despite not being in even remotely good shape, I am regaining my extra senses.

The group is visibly uncomfortable around me, but when I offer a helping hoof in pitching tents and making a fire pit I recieve few mumbled thanks. The equipment is different from what I'm used to, but similar enough to work with.

The unicorn of the group pulls out a large crystal from his bag, some device, and a canister of something. He pours the liquid into the device and uses his magic to light the crystal he puts into a slot in it. The device starts humming, and a minute or two later I feel the enclosed space warm up significantly.

"What is it?" I ask, examining it from all sides, "A heating unit of some sort?"

"Yeah," the unicorn says, professional interest taking control of his voice, "It's a petrol heater which is started by the magical charge in the crystal, but its heat also feeds the magical resonance in the crystal's structure which creates even more charge and makes for more heat at a lower fuel consumption. I don't remember how many I blew up or melted before that little twist worked properly. In any other place I would have made millions by patenting it, but not with the damn griffons...!"

"What's wrong with griffons?"

"They-"

"Everything ready?" Desert Shade asks loudly. She apparently believes my information about Corrupted being far away. Good to know.

"Well," the unicorn huffs, "She'll tell you, I suppose. Des has a pretty good grasp of history."

The six of us sit around the heating unit in the fire pit. They unwrap some invitingly smelling supplies and chow down. Having lost my equipment during the flight from Pine Hills, I can do little but watch, at least until the griffon called Lyam offers me a piece of meat.

"Thanks, but I've got enough of... flesh for today. Got any pony food?"

"Sure, I just thought... well... considering we saw you eat the Hunter..." the comment fades into worried silence.

"The Corrupted part of me needed it. I got badly wounded while getting here, whatever this place is-"

"This used to be a small town called Dodge Junction," Desert Shade makes sense of the "D-DGE J-CT-N" sign.

"Here to Dodge," I continue, "I was in such a bad shape I couldn't just absorb nutrition from the tainted territory, I barely can even now. I've never physically eaten another Corrupted before and I would sure as hay prefer not having to do it ever again. I eat normal food in Ponyville."

Lyam rummages in his bag and offers me a brown 'something' the size of a pony hoof.

"Soy blob. They have a real name, but I don't recall what."

"Thanks," my three tongues wrap around it and I gulp it down in one bite like a snake, "Hits the spot."

The entire group shivers at the sight.

Heh.

When the others stop eating and make themselves comfortable, Desert Shade starts talking.

"I might not look like it, but I've been around even before the corruption started. Don't ask me why or how, but I don't age normally. It has something to do with my mother," she spits the word out, "and that is none of your business."

She takes a deep breath and continues.

"So, here we go. I was on the front lines against Corrupted even before Canterlot fell some ninety years ago. I led my first group of mercenaries when I was twenty-two into the Smokey Mountains in the far west. The first waves of Corrupted killed and transformed all my friends without even slowing down. All but one. We fled through days and nights north to Vanhoover, warning the populations. At first, they didn't believe us, but since we got there only few days before the first Corrupted arrived, they soon changed their stance on the subject," she chuckles sadistically. The other mercenaries are listening intently which makes it obvious they had not heard the entire story yet, "Well, Vanhoover fell within a day. A city of million ponies turned to a breeding ground without a single survivor but us, and that was only because we took a train to the Crystal Empire immediately when we saw the city officials didn't believe our story. We had to go north because all other trains used to go south through White Tail Woods first before going east. That was only the beginning."

Her amusement at the disbelievers' fate is long gone, and she just sighs.

"Prince Shining Armor and princess Cadence were skeptical at first, but when the first news about Vanhoover and Las Pegasus going dark arrived, they believed our testimony. The Imperial military was mustered and they sent emissaries to Yakyakistan and Rift, the new capital city of minotaurs. We were on our way to Canterlot soon after with diplomatic letters from the royal family to the princesses. About a week later, trains from the Crystal Empire stopped coming altogether."

As she recalls the past long gone, a bitter smile graces her muzzle again. I must cheer her up. After all, her early warning might be the sole reason the Crystal Empire survived the first onslaught.

"If you ever want to visit the Empire again, we can arrange it. I'm sure both prince Shining Armor and princess Cadence will be happy to see you."

"Shining is alive?" she raises an eyebrow.

"His wife is keeping him alive and healthy."

"Heh, it looks like the old world is more tenacious than I believed," Desert Shade chuckles, "Well, good to know there is a place without griffons to run off to."

"What's with the griffons then?"

"I'm getting to it. I sure as hay am not going to recap a century of my exploits to you," she rolls her eyes, but looks more amused than annoyed, "We warned the royals in Canterlot, and because we had the diplomatic communiques they believed our every word. With three alicorns and a changeling queen, I thought we were safe. My friend left for the coast immediately, wanting to find a new job in the Griffon Empire while I stayed in Canterlot. With entire west of Equestria disappearing and barely any survivors or information coming in, princess Celestia took the best of the best in the army and marched west. With our information about the spread of the Corrupted coming from an area south of Smokey Mountains, her legion's course were the White Tail Woods. Well, she disappeared as well soon enough, and I knew there and then I should get out of Canterlot immediately. At that time, panic was spreading through Equestria. Ponies were converging towards population centers in hope to find refuge, but all it did was gather them all for Corrupted to transform in one fell swoop. In the end, I ended in Manehattan, the largest city in Equestria."

She frowns.

"We had excellent relationship with the Griffon Empire at the time. They sent their fleet, tons and tons of supplies, soldiers, weapons. Anything their military might could spare was sent to Manehattan. The city held for months until the Corrupted stopped breaking blindly against the army posts. Unfortunately, the expenditure of Imperial money and forces could not last forever, at least not without anything in return. With ponies understanding that without griffons they would all be dead, they were forced to be on the front lines in missions aimed at scavenging pony legacy. The ponies survived, but the cost were the secrets of alchemy, magic, natural technology. It turned worse and worse, starting with unicorns. Those who weren't particularly talented with magic had their horns and other bodyparts harvested and used as drug reagents for pharmaceutical industry in the Griffon Empire. The others were forced to conduct more and more immoral and exploratory rituals to further the understanding of all kinds of magic and present the results to the griffon... slavers."

Her wings flap in frustration.

"And that's what ponies are today in Manehattan - slaves. A population over a million under the paw of the griffon military. Eventually, I couldn't bear it anymore, and moved to the Griffon Empire so that I wouldn't have to look at it day after day."

"BUT THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THAT ANYMORE!" I shout, excitement growing inside me, "We can change that now. Princesses Luna and Twilight are alive. We have soldiers-"

"They have a LOT more," she snarls, "They have the minds of ponies who were born into being slaves. They don't know anything about Equestria or the princesses other than gossip and old mares' tales. They BELIEVE things are as they should be, no matter the abuse. They lost all hope."

"Have you ever heard the name Shadowstep? A changeling, from what I was told."

"I... have," she says cautiously.

"We have Corrupted on our side, organized and equipped with the knowledge of tactical combat. We can't move an entire hive to Manehattan, but if we can get inside we can transform griffons and spread from inside the city."

All of them are staring at me again, just like after they saw me devour the Hunter.

"I'm sorry. It's just... I was raised to believe every pony is important, even necessary. With the population of two thousand living in an underground enclave, I know a lot of them personally. Hearing about them treated like... resource to be reprocessed into something useful is a little too much."

"Heh, that makes more of us."

"Can you give me directions to Manehattan? I must admit I'm a little lost," I scratch my head.

"The second you are spotted the griffons will capture and disassemble you, no matter how ultimately futile doing that to Corrupted is."

I recall mom's frustration whenever she had to do research on Corrupted before Nightshade's time. They melt... and whoosh - nothing.

"So, they don't know anything?" I take a guess.

"As far as I know there is nothing which can be used to effectively suppress you. Aside from decapitation being the most lethal damage to cause to a Corrupted, and not to all of you to boot."

"Yeah, Corruptors are weird."

The half-liquid bastards are the only ones who don't care at all about their head being severed. Nightshade hates them too, because they seem to conflict with her Protector nature and refuse to form in any reasonable numbers within the hive.

"If you can get me some clothes, I can change myself enough to look like a big earthpony. As long as nopony looks me in the eyes I should be fine even in the city."

"Whoa, who said we were on the same side?" Shade grins. Yeah, we definitely are, but I have to play my cards right...

...or just be honest.

"We know of a way for changeling queens to assume control of Corrupted to a certain extent. I was sent to find one called Guiding Light. Before that, though, my mother told me about queen Chrysalis' general by the name of Nightshade. While I wasn't sent to look for her, I assume that would be my next mission. If I can get her to Ponyville, she might be able to control enough Corrupted to secure enough territory for the princesses to safely pass from Ponyville to Manehattan."

"I doubt diplomatic approach would work."

I give her a wide and evil grin.

"My mother is Twilight Sparkle, and I know her better than she knows herself in some respects. She might look like a peaceful leader, but if she and especially princess Luna get to hear your story..."

Complete and utter carnage.

"Let's just say that even the Queen of Ponyville hive used to be a pony raised just like I was. The griffons might have a strong military, but we have two extremely pissed off alicorns, one changeling queen ready to stretch her infiltrators' muscles, and a Corrupted Queen, all ready to bring their righteous hooves down on the occupants."

"You know?" Desert Shade laughs coldly, "I've never been one for peaceful and comfortable life. We're on our way back anyway, so let's go to Manehattan together. Perhaps we'll make the world a little better place."

"Oh yeah..."

She gives her group a practiced look.

"Avalanche, Airburst, you're on the first watch. Lyam and Mist Cloud, you get the morning shift. Let's end this for tonight."

The earthpony and the pegasus nod while the griffon and the unicorn take their stuff and disappear into their tents. The heater is left outside to cool down but turned off. I lie down next to it to catch any remaining warmth.

A thick roll of cloth lands on me.

"A spare sleeping bag," Desert Shade nods and enters her tent as well.

I probably don't need it, but if I can spare energy by not warming myself from the inside I'll take it.

Griffons...

And here I thought Corrupted were evil, but they aren't, they just can't help themselves.

For a civilized species to treat intelligent beings like this...

They will pay.


	26. Manehattan Sunrise: Predators

We've successfully fought our way through the wilderness in past four days. Thankfully, the mentioned fighting was only against untamed vegetation and our own nerves. Thanks to my warning, we managed to avoid any big group of Corrupted, and the numerous solitary ones got scared off by me and the threat of organized steel and lead.

Heh, I completely forgot how much time travelling takes when one moves at the speed of a pony. If alone, I could have gone the distance in a day. Speaking of not being alone, after the first two nights the mercenaries kind of got the idea that I really am not some new hostile Corrupted trying to lull them into false sense of security, and relaxed significantly.

The first one to thaw was Lyam, the black and brown griffon I caught when we first met. He said he knew many ponies who got into the same situation and, unlike him, didn't come upon a friendly Corrupted. He just got lucky, but somehow got the idea he owed me his life due to it being fate switching me and a random hostile Hunter. It must be a griffon thing, because I still don't understand a word of what he said. He is Desert Shade's group's shieldbearer, which means he is the one on the front line buying time for the rest to flank and assure a favorable fight.

Mist Cloud, the grey, black-maned unicorn mage and engineer rolled in one was next. The group carries with them pieces of technology imitating magic devices I know from Ponyville and many more the concept of which I've never seen before. Horseshoes allowing one to climb sheer rock walls, completely mundane with no need for magic for one. In short, I had infinite questions, and he had almost all the answers. Evening after evening, I accompanied him on his watch and we talked about griffon and pony inventions. I have some engineer friends in Ponyville, and the key to their heart is always letting them talk about what they love even if you have trouble understanding some of the more specialized words.

Airburst, the last male of the group, is a muscular blue pegasus whose physique betrays he exercises the same way as an earthpony would. Pegasi usually have the strongest chests, using those muscles to flap their wings, and lack in leg strength. Airburst looks as if he could kick through a brick wall. He lacks the flexibility of wings needed for aerial acrobatics, but has trained his wings to be rigid and extremely sturdy. He moves in long hops and glides instead of flying due to that 'handicap'. However, he can use a weapon I've only seen several times before - wing razors. It's a metal contruction fastened to the wing bones copying the outlying feathers on the wings by using thin, sharp metal shards. Getting cut by one is like being sliced open with a saw blade. It is more a terrifying weapon than a practical one, but it allows pegasi use their speed and agility.

Airburst still doesn't like me, though, no way around it.

The next member of the mercenary group is an earthpony mare called Avalanche. She is dark grey, muscular enough to give Lyam a run for his money, and actually really pretty despite her short brown mane. She doesn't talk much, but keeps staring at me whenever she thinks I'm not paying attention. I know the look she gives me from Ponyville, specifically from semi-corrupted ponies. Those who have felt the touch of a Corrupted and had their mind tainted by lust and need would give their right hoof to have a chance to mate wildly with a Corrupted again were they not terrified of the prospect of losing themselves completely. After my transformation, I had som- few- sever- numerous offers, and not only from them. Corrupted sexual prowess is sought out, and the more ponies get used to their company, the more the trend grows. I'm sure it's not just my ego talking, and that she wants to bed me... hard.

And yes, she is beyond shy. Around me, that is.

Last but not least, Desert Shade, the leader of the group. A female hippogriff self-proclaimed to be about a century old despite looking thirty-ish. Normally, I would write off a thing like that as something to impress other mercs and steady her leadership position, but her knowledge of history is unique. She talks about things only my mother should know, things not important enough to be taught in school but that ponies who were there would remember. Maybe I'm the only one thinking that, but she looks strange. Traits and colours of ponies usually fit together in some way, no matter how eclectic it might be. Hers don't, she looks as if she was 'constructed' from three non-connected traits. Her mane and tail are light blonde, her coat is charcoal black, and her eyes are bright green. Thinking about it again, looks like that are nothing unusual... it just fits strangely, or doesn't fit to be precise. Her cutie mark is a heraldic sign of two crossed greatswords on a tricolored crest. The colours are green, red, and light blue, further increasing my 'theory of some three things' about her.

Look, I don't know what bothers me about it so much. Oh well, at least she is friendly.

We are walking through what is supposed to be the forested land around Manehattan. Several clearings earlier, I thought I could see shadows of buildings. If that was the case, though, then the buildings would have to be reaching the sky. I've never seen anything of that sort other than the palace in the Crystal Empire.

"Hmph!" I huff as a strange feeling of impending threat washes over me.

"What's going on?" asks Desert Shade, having learned that my senses are far superior.

"Something feels off, as if a Corrupted was nearby, but I can't sense who or what it is."

"Get ready, guys," she commands, and everyone in the group tenses up.

I only get a second of clear bloodthirsty intent as my warning. It's enough, though, and when the furious crunching of breaking vegetation reaches my ears I am ready to fight. At least I thought I was before I saw the black form overshadowing even me barreling through the scenery.

Bulging muscles, wings with blade-like feathers, curved beaks, front legs equipped with deadly talons and hind ones with paws allowing for quiet movement. Above that, the most prominent feature of all, blood-red eyes of a carnivorous predator. All that in the black color scheme of a Corrupted.

Five tainted griffons.

"Lyam, Mist!" Desert Shade yells and the mercs react instantly. Lyam readies his heavy, steel shield, and Mist Cloud's horn flares, creating a shimmering aura around each one of them. Not around me, though, "Five of them, for stars sake! Let's kite them back to Manehattan. The sentry cannons on the walls should deal with them just fine. Ava, grab Mist!"

"On it!" the earthpony mare picks the unicorn up on her back and we all run.

After few bolts of magic it is clear the griffons don't care about Mist's projectiles, so he aims them at the trees in hope to make them collapse and slow the griffons down. Our flight is more a controlled brisk run backwards than a mad dash. The griffons are much faster than the mercenaries, and the only way they can get out is by surviving the attackers' glancing blows using magic barriers and their own skill.

The griffons, however, get bored of the chase quickly and surround us. This close, I can sense the instincts inside them. These fast and deadly monstrosities are just Hunters, which means they are not made for actual combat. With that in mind, I immediately charge at one as they start circling us like prey.

The moment of his shock is enough for me to get close and swipe at his neck, attempting to decapitate him instantly. His flesh is tough, and I can't get through the sheer amount of tight muscle in one swing. Even with my taloned leg still buried in his half-cleaved neck, he still pecks forward and rips a chunk from my shoulder. Grasping his open wound, I jump forward and the force spins me so that I end on his back. With a quick stab of my other front leg, I sever the griffon's spine. His whole head follows a blow later.

Okay, four against six, at least temporarily.

Desert Shade is shockingly agile, and is keeping one griffon Hunter busy by herself. She has no chance of actually hurting him, and she needs to dodge every blow or she'll die. Plus, fatigue will slow her down eventually, while the Corrupted will be fine for infinitely longer.

Lyam is doing the same, although with less agility and more blocking. Thankfully, his enemy is trying to jump around and play instead of just smacking his shield as hard as he can and breaking Lyam's legs by sheer force. So, even if the griffons are physically stronger and more furious than pony-based Corrupted, they are not more organized or smarter, possibly even less.

Avalanche is wearing steel plating on her legs and using it to block blows she cannot avoid from another griffon. She punches back, and her spiked horseshoes rip a chunk of flesh from the Corrupted, but despite a hiss of pain it does not relent in its assault in the slightest.

Airburst is dancing around the final enemy, his wing blades cutting deep into Corrupted flesh. Sadly, the effect is miniscule at best. With the group unable to focus their strength at one or two enemies, they are outnumbered and can barely survive despite experience, skill, and coordination.

Seeing Lyam being battered around by the griffon playing with him like a cat with a yarn ball, I rush to help him. Able to flank him, I savage the Corrupted quickly...

...not quickly enough, though.

Green beam of energy comes from Mist Cloud, who is being protected by Avalanche and Airburst, cutting the griffon's who busy with Avalanche wing clean off.

He screeches, the two remaining join in, and I feel their essence split away from them. Mist Cloud's eyes roll back, and his horn shatters to pieces. A moment later, black liquid starts boiling from inside his skull, and his whole body liquifies, accompanied by his ecstatic laughter.

Horn rot. In order to make a move even barely allowing us to tip the scales of the fight, he made himself too big of a threat, and the Corrupted anti-magic instinct kicked in.

"Mist, no!" Avalanche's focus wavers and she looks away from her enemy. The griffon rears, grabs each of her armored legs, pulls her up, and cuts her in half with his beak. Ribs break with no resistance and her insides fall on the forest ground. Ava just hangs there, gurgling as her enemy starts eating her body without letting her drop. Luckily, missing a heart, she's gone in seconds.

Lyam charges the griffon beating Desert Shade, and they successfully split its focus, giving each of them a break to take a breath. They have no way of hurting him though.

Avalanche's head drops to the ground just as I jump to help Airburst. The griffon ending his earthpony feast, however, is much closer, and the swipe of his talons cleaves the unarmored pegasus dodging his original enemy's attacks in two.

There is nothing I can do to help somepony ripped in half. This is the reason why we haven't been able to walk on the surface before Nightshade's transformation. Even if ponies could outsmart Corrupted, one blow... one single attack weakened a pony or outright killed them. No matter the corruption taking their minds over, the physical contest has always been impossible.

So, it's a three against three now. Well, it's just me against three, and two others buying me time.

I need to get rid of the distracted one first.

"I know you didn't like me, but I'm still sorry," I leave Airburst's body to be desecrated by the Corrupted devouring it, and run over to Des and Lyam. Considering how quickly the griffon ate Avalanche, I have at most five seconds before the other two attack again.

"Back off!" I yell, lunging at the busy griffon.

Both mercenaries react instantly, showing they trust me completely. Lyam rolls away, Desert Shade stabs her rapier into the Corrupted, leaves it in and puts distance between them as well.

I get a quick swing in before the corrupted griffon refocuses on me. He swats me away with a wing, and I finally feel encroaching exhaustion from not being able to feed properly since fleeing Guiding Light. We might get this griffon as well, but I'm not sure I can deal with the other two.

Well, I am sure, but not of the result I would like.

Drenched in black blood, my vision goes dark as I blindly swipe at the griffon on whose back I jump over and over. Like a rodeo pony, I just try to hang in there and hope the Corrupted falls before I do. In the end, I hit the ground. Thankfully, the body that was underneath me doesn't move anymore.

Gathering myself, I groggily get back up to at least buy time against the remaining two, but...

...they are busy with something- somepony else.

A purely white griffon about as big as I am rears on his hind legs and swings a two-handed battleaxe which leaves a blue trail in the air and cleaves through the Corrupted's body as if it was butter.

The griffon Hunter might have little intelligence, but even in his Corrupted eyes I can see a clear expression of 'what the crap has just happened?'. It's an expression I must be mirroring from the depth of my heart. The white griffon spins around, swinging his axe as if it wasn't as big as he is and made of steel, but a rubber toy replica for foals. The last corrupted griffon turns to flee, but the white griffon's axe catches him, and, accompanied by a bolt of lightning coming from the sky, slices and burns the Corrupted at the same time.

The griffon turns to me, not slowing in the slightest, pulls something from his back and lobs it straight at my face. The impact of steel is more disorienting than anything, but when I open my eyes he is already close, ready to swing. I roll away and harden my front legs as much as I can to block the incoming blow.

Nothing.

I open one eye.

The other eye.

Lyam is standing over my body, shield raised in front of him. No pony, griffon, or Corrupted is moving.

"Hmmm," the white griffon raises an eyebrow, "You don't look tainted. Why are you protecting it?"

"He's not like the others. He helped us get here and without him we would have been overrun in seconds."

Des joins in.

"That, and he can talk. Specifically, he says he's the son of princess Twilight Sparkle and comes from Ponyville. Not sure if any of those names mean anything to you, but-"

"Those names mean very much to me, young lady," the griffon cuts her off and lowers his axe, "but I was under the impression that princess Sparkle fell with the city of Canterlot."

"Well, if you decide against cutting Mana Burn's head off you'll get to hear an interesting story."

"Alright, first things first, who are you?"

Desert Shade looks into the griffon's eyes. The exactly same eyes. Not a family member similarity or anything, just the precise copy of bright emerald green. The griffon's eyes seem to glow from the inside, though.

"My name is Desert Shade. My unit and I were returning from scouting the ancient changeling hives south in the Badlands. That's Lyam," she nods to the smaller griffon, "and the Corrupted's name is Mana Burn," she gives a sad frown to the black puddle which used to be Mist Cloud and the two half-devoured corpses of Avalanche and Airburst, "And we can talk in Manehattan later. I'm not leaving them to rot here in the open air."

Ignoring the griffon's outstretched talons, she rummages in Mist Cloud's large bag, pulls out a collapsible shovel, and starts digging.

"My name is Cromach," the white griffon says and nods, "Got a second one?"

Des throws a spare shovel to him, and he joins in digging the graves. Lyam and I finish the third one using my claws and his shield.

Picking up the bags of equipment, we move once again towards Manehattan.

"That was quite something. I mean, with the corrupted griffons," I say out loud something that's bothering me, "I doubt even my mom or princess Luna would be able to do that."

"The alicorns rely on using either divine power or magic. Neither Twilight Sparkle nor Luna possess distinct divine abilities and both rely on massive magic power which is countered by horn rot. I don't have to worry about it," Cromach explains, "Speaking of which, the way you talk about them... are they still alive?"

"Yes," I nod, "It's a long story, but in past months we have managed to recover a portion of Equestria from the Corrupted. Canterlot is no longer a dead city, only mostly empty, and we have discovered that Crystal Empire still exists. Ummm... my visit to Manehattan is... related to that."

"I know who you are!" Desert Shade, until now deep in thought, jumps, "Cromach, the Black Ops agent in Equestria working for the Silver S-"

She stops, blade of Cromach's axe against her neck. He looks at Lyam. Des slowly pushes her talons against the edge, careful not to end like the corrupted griffons.

"I saw you a century ago on a meeting with Manehattan officials. I've worked in Manehattan enough to hear your name whispered by desperate ponies. You and your order are the sole symbol of hope. The watchful eye punishing the griffons for pushing too far. I thought you were a legend, but since I age differently, who says others can't?" the happiness rising in Des' voice is infectious.

"I don't age differently," Cromach lowers his weapon and we resume walking, "I don't age at all. This body will last as long as I have the power of will to go on. But, since you are travelling with a Corrupted, one who knows about things nopony should these days on top of that, I'll listen to you. Why are you coming to Manehattan, Mana Burn?"

"I was looking for a changeling queen by the name of Shadowstep."

"She and her unit are long gone, travelling the world again."

"Desert Shade told me, yes. Now that I know ponies in Manehattan are in such dire situation, I want to help. My mother's wish is to put Equestria back together. My Queen Nightshade's hive and two other hives are working with ponies to create a safer and bountiful land for both species. Most of this continent is still uninhabitable, but we are changing that."

"And what do you intend to do with Manehattan? Besiege it and fight against ponies who will consider your princess a myth and you a Corrupted set on devouring the last bastion of equinity?"

"I need to secure a way for Twilight Sparkle to get here, but with the way Corrupted territories work we can't just send a group of Protectors to escort her here. I hoped she could talk to the griffons or at least the citizens. She knows her ways around diplomacy, from what I know of her history. She used to be Equestria's head diplomat and princess of... Friendship?"

"Ponies do not know who she is," Cromach shakes his head, "Twilight Sparkle is just a name to them, that's all."

"Yeah... I gathered that," I sigh.

"Not to all of them, though," he changes our course, turning sharply to the left through the forest instead of going straight towards the city walls visible in the distance, "If you are willing to go all the way, we can... arrange something."

"You're taking us to the Silver Sun hideout, right?" Des smiles smugly.

"I am willing to take the risk, only thanks to Mana Burn here."

"So, what does your group do and why are you famous, mister Cromach?"

"I ma nopony special-"

"EHM!" Desert Shade coughs, "This guy's a hero! His organization are basically terrorists, well, freedom fighters. I guess that depends on the point of view. Griffons consider them enemies because whenever the local officials declare some REALLY stupid new rule kicking ponies to the nuts even more they make a mess, like attack griffon embassies and stuff."

"Then he is in the best position to help!" I raise my voice, "Sir, you know the area, you know ponies around, you can-"

"I can't get enough supplies to feed the entire city population," Cromach kills my argument instantly, "I can't move them to Ponyville, or wherever your home is now. You can't even secure a way for an ALICORN to get here. What chance do defenseless civilians have?"

"I... I'll think of something. If you just get me into the city I can at least scout around and bring a useful report to my mom. I'm too weak to be sure I can get all the way back safely, but if you give me a place to rest I'll recover."

"Calm down," Cromach smiles, "If there is something we have in abundance, it is time."

He is right. The city has survived decades like this. Rushing things would only lead to more mistakes.

We walk in silence again until Cromach stops in front of a group of bushes. He breaks several dry twigs, and a glowing portal appears from nowhere. As he nods his head, Lyam, Des, and I walk inside, being blinded by light but feeling the forest under our hooves change into chiseled stone floor. When the light fades, I recognize a tunnel similar to our entrances to Ponyville enclave.

"Let me go first," Cromach pushes ahead of us, "You wouldn't like what can happen to unannounced visitors in this place."

The tunnel is long, but I feel the tingling of magic several times, assuring me that teleportation spells got us further without walking. In the end we go up a staircase and end in a wide circular room with tiled floor and staircases along the sides leading into upper floors.

"This place is UNDERGROUND?" I gasp.

"Wait, what? This is nonsense!" Desert Shade runs towards a huge door obviously leading outside, opens it, and faces two disgruntled guards. Pony guards, I notice.

"At ease," Cromach waves the guards off.

"Yes, sir!" they salute and slam the door shut before Des' nose. Lyam chuckles quietly.

"This.. this... I've been here before! This WASN'T here!"

I have no clue what she's talking about.

"What's going on?"

"First," Cromach grins, "This place is a mansion in Manehattan. The Hoof family mansion, although nopony other than me knew the only Hoof family member ever to stay here," he points at a life-sized statue in the middle of the room. It depicts a pure white earthpony with blue mane and hair around his fetlocks. His physique is astonishing even by my standards, and yet the statue betrays uncharacteristic softness.

"But I've visited this place when I was... doesn't matter," Des stop with an exasperated huff, "This wasn't here!" she repeats.

"Of course," Cromach's grin grows, "If you come through the main entrance, you enter the real mansion. This is a pocket dimension a member of Shadowstep's squad crafted for us. The real Silver Sun headquarters."

A grey, mechanical unicorn with blue eyes comes over and bows to us.

"Bucket, get these three a free room. My training session today was a bit hectic and I need some rest."

Training session? This guy fights corrupted griffons FOR PRACTICE?

"Yes, sir," the robot drones and Cromach turns to us. Its voice is not unpleasant, but definitely unique.

"Three things," he raises a talon, "One - don't try to leave," second one shoots up, "Two - even if you are some clever spies, don't try to overpower Bucket here, it's too difficult to clean all the bits afterwards," the final one rises, "Three - see me in my office tomorrow morning," he starts walking up the stairs, "Bucky, keep an eye on them."

"Yes, sir," the robot nods and points towards the other staircase, "Follow me."

Shrugging, Desert Shade follows him and turns her head to me.

"Welcome to Manehattan, I guess."


	27. Manehattan Sunrise: Reminiscing

Polite knocking on the door of my room wakes me up. There is no morning daze for Corrupted, or at least for me. Hmmm, I've never bothered to ask. Alert and ready, I slip from the bed and walk over to the door of the spartan room I was given in the Order mansion. The visage of Bucket the robot reminds me well of my current situation. Cromach looked insanely strong, and even he said Bucket was a threat. Despite my weakened state, I still wonder how the thin skeleton of steel plates and cables underneath could be THAT dangerous, though.

Ooooh, the rest in a warm and comfortable bed helped a ton.

"Sir Cromach is waiting for you. Mercenaries Desert Shade and Lyam opted to assist you in any way you deem necessary," Bucket drones in a pleasant, yet mechanical voice.

"I can't help noticing that the three 'ponies' first to help me against griffons are, in fact, griffons or half griffons."

"Griffons deciding to spend their time here rather than in the Empire usually have good reasons for avoiding the place and others of their kind. Manehattan might be in the grip of iron talons, but the Empire is strict in their laws as well. They observe ancient traditions very carefully, and certain things considered normal in Equestria are atrocities in the Empire."

"What did Lyam and Cromach do?" I ask, curious about what was so abominable that it forced them to live in a place crawling with Corrupted.

"According to our... sources, Lyam is a son of one of the ruling families, and he fell in love with a deer. Racial mixing is unacceptable for the high nobles. When he refused to leave his mate he was disowned and she was executed."

"Oh..." I must admit I'm in shock. Once again, the complete lack of sanctity of life we hold so dear in the enclave is beyond me. When a pony's life is worth less than some unwritten ancient tradition then you know something is rotten and wrong.

"Sir Cromach had to leave the Empire some two centuries ago for having an affair with a male Griffon Legion soldier. He earned his status back shortly after, but he had to fight off assassins and perform services crucial to the survival of the Empire."

"That makes even less sense. Why is he here then?"

"Because he is a very fair and dutiful griffon, Mana Burn. Those old enough usually grow to be either insane or wise. Aren't you glad he is the latter?" Bucket's blue eye shuts down for a moment, and I realize the robot has just winked at me.

This being is definitely more than just a machine.

"What about you?" I ask.

He smiles.

"I am exactly twenty-four years younger than sir Cromach. The events surrounding his escape to Equestria led indirectly to my creation. It is a long story, however, and he prefers not retelling it. Even after so much time, it brings back painful memories."

A staircase later, he opens a door same as every other inside the mansion and ushers me inside. It's a spacious office filled both with shelves bending under the weight of ledgers, and various items lying all over the place some of which must be memorabilia and souvenirs.

Those, and Cromach's terrifying battleaxe.

The griffon is sitting in an armchair behind a work desk stacked with documents, a strange metal construction I recall him throwing at me hanging on his back and reaching over his shoulder. A closer look reveals it to be some kind of leg prosthesis. Lyam and Desert Shade are already inside, relaxing in chairs, drinking something. Well, Lyam looks fine, but Des is eyeing a certain portrait on the wall with barely contained disdain and hatred.

A portrait of somepony I recognize. At least, of somepony extremely similar to somepony I recognize.

"Here you are," Cromach looks up from his work, "Slept well?"

He just is the guy who can smile in the worst situation imaginable, definitely one having a mischievous streak inside him. The key is to play his game.

"Very much so. Until recently, I've slept either on the ground or beds made of stone due to the lack of resources underground."

"Excellent. I just have few things to say before you can go grab something to eat. You said you needed to recover," he nods to me questioningly.

I realize how detached I feel now that there is no corrupted soil anywhere around and shiver. This is going to make regaining my strength more difficult.

"I'm going to have to go out into the wild to heal faster. I can sense corruption present, but I can't tap into it to drain energy from the area."

"Interesting, is that how it works?"

"I can share all I remember from Twilight's experiments and what is my own experience both from before I was transformed and after, but for real details you'll have to talk to my mom herself."

"Which brings us to the main subject. Do you have any idea how to get a message across half of Equestria, or is the plan still to just wait for your recovery? The best thing I came up with overnight is a long-range radio transmission, but we have tried that over and over in hope of contacting any surviving ponies and the broadcast doesn't reach far enough. A beamed signal instead of a broadcast would reach much further, but we would need to know the exact geographic coordinates of your Ponyville. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. First, do you actually have a surface radio station there?"

"Hmmm," I work through the possibilities of the enclave in my head, "There is an antenna built into the crystal tree castle. We use it from time to time to spread a message for any random survivors. I'm not sure if there is anypony stationed at the reciever when it is not in use-"

Wait!

"Actually," I restart my train of thought, "We don't really use radios because it's impossible to transmit underground properly, but there is an intercom announcement system for the enclave built into the main radio circuitry."

"You mean that anything the antenna recieves is broadcasted throughout the entire Ponyville?" Cromach looks at me skeptically, "That seems incredibly impractical and, forgive me, downright stupid."

"With all due respect," I frown, "There was no enclave when Canterlot fell, only the surface town of Ponyville which has never been a center of industry. When Corrupted rolled over Canterlot, most ponies tried to escape and were transformed. Whoever survived the flight to Ponyville fortress got there without resources. My mother saved what knowledge was possible from Canterlot library, but even with her interest in most things she didn't have a comprehensive guide on how to make and fix everything. After Ponyville surface fortress fell, the ponies barely survived living in the caves while preserving what little technology they scrounged up. The situation now when we have working mining operations, farms, and manufacture-based industry was built upon near nothing. These days we have resources, but there is no need to replace anything that has worked until now. Waste not, want not."

That's how I've been brought up in a place where comfort was very rare. It hits me just now to its full extent how astonishing the change coming with Nightshade was. A little thing like a pegasus mare sent on a mission to scout a small strange stretch of the forest changed absolutely everything.

"I apologize," Cromach bows his head, "I had no idea the situation was that bad. Here in Manehattan, outside of the social implications, our situation has not changed to such degree. That makes our situation even worse, though. Can your 'enclave' even handle taking care of Manehattan ponies?"

"Actually, if the estimated amount living in Manehattan Des told me about was correct, then we just might. A drastic portion of the Crystal Empire's population has recently been wiped out during a Corrupted attack, so there is a lot of free space up north. As for the enclave itself, the new conquered territories should be able to host at least a hundred thousand ponies. Food would be a concern, but with new workers, especially unicorns and pegasi able to control the weather it should be possible. Twilight will know more."

"Alright, I think I have a plan. Give me few days to think about it and we'll talk again."

"Are we supposed to just sit here until you're ready?" Desert Shade asks, "Lyam and I have business to take care of in the city."

"Right, the Badlands expedition. Found anything interesting?" Cromach asks with a slight smile.

"You can check for yourself," Des shrugs, "I don't mind your mages and engineers looking through our things as long as you return everything in perfect shape. To be honest, though, even Corrupted apparently don't like the Badlands. There is little to no life aside from them there, and even those whom we observed looked weak and starved. We found old remains of changelings preserved by their goo but that's about it."

"If you need to talk with changelings, queen Chrysalis and her hive are part of the Ponyville enclave."

"Griffons want to dissect them and experiment on their bodies to find out about their natural shapeshifting abilities," Des explains, "I honestly pity any live changeling getting into one of their laboratories."

"And the Order doesn't perform those. Some of our members ARE changelings and we let them keep their secrets to themselves," Cromach adds, "You, miss hippogriff, can leave as soon as our guys check your bags. I'll tell you a way to contact me when you're free to go. As for you, Mana Burn, your situation is a little different."

Lyam and Desert Shade leave, escorted by a pair of armed ponies in simple white tunics, probably the standard Order clothing. There was one inside a chest in the room I slept in as well.

"What do you mean?" I ask, watching the exit with a tiny eyeball I grow on my tail, "Are you going to try to experiment on me?"

He raises his talons.

"I choose to believe you and princess Sparkle will be of all possible assistance once our business here is over. No, I was thinking about the fact that you needed to go outside to recover properly. Getting out of here is simple, but coming back without knowing the right path is nigh-impossible, thankfully. I'll show you later when I go out for my practice."

I'm not sure why this bothers me, especially after being savaged by corrupted griffons, but still...

"Do you kill Corrupted for training?"

"Kill?" Cromach shakes his head, "No, that would be too easy. I try to fight them off without killing them, which is much more difficult."

"How?" I recall him slicing Corrupted into bits, "How come you can cause such damage to them? I can believe you are strong, but you can't be physically strong enough to slice a Corrupted in half, no matter what your axe is made of. What IS it made from, anyway?" I nod to the huge weapon propped against a shelving cabinet behind Cromach.

"Just steel," he shrugs, "I've met creatures similar to Corrupted waaaaay before they swarmed Equestria."

"You? Desert Shade told me she and her past friends were the first to spot Corrupted presence."

"Where?"

"In the Smokey Mountains to the west. She said they came from the direction of White Tail Woods."

Cromach freezes. If he could pale through his already pure white feathers he definitely would. He looks as if he finally put two and two together and wished the answer was anything but four.

"What?" he chokes.

"Princess Celestia took her best guards before Canterlot fell and went west. We have managed to find her encrypted journal recently and deciphered a message about a place called the Barrier situated in a valley not too far west from White Tail."

"Did the journal talk about a sacrificial altar and the ruins of an ancient pyramid?" Cromach shoots out with the speed of a machine gun.

"We don't know. We haven't deciphered the entire thing yet."

"Did we buy ponies less time than we thought?" Cromach looks at a bejewelled alicorn statuette on his table and whispers.

"You think you know something, right?" I ask with absolute certainty, "You know where Corrupted come from."

"Of course I do. When two Corrupted love each other very much, they find a nearby Breeder, have kinky tentacle threesome, and some time later there is a little pony-like thing prowling the forest and transforming real ponies into its image," he says distantly, as if thinking about the real answer and just keeping his beak occupied, "It might be a coincidence. As I said, I've met 'ponies' able to survive under insane circumstances. They pledged their alleagiance to an entity who infused them with divine power and made them resistant to damage, able to adapt to their surroundings easily, and even change reality to a small degree. The Corrupted feel similar, only not so... intentional."

"What do you mean?"

"The ponies I'm talking about called themselves the Vigil and worshipped an evil deity, attempting to bring it into this world. I, and other brave or suicidal individuals, opposed them. The place where your Barrier is supposed to be broadly coincides with where we fought and stopped the god and its cultists."

"So... the Corrupted are a cult or something? From what little I remember before I locked the 'presence' out of my mind there is no coordination between the Corrupted aside from... never cooperating with ponies under any circumstances," I finish my thought, realization growing in me.

Cromach sighs.

"I'm not going to bother you with the whole story. Suffice to say that your mother is to be blamed for our failure. If, and that is a BIG if, my suspicion is correct then... hmmm... then she is at fault for the entire era of corruption," he stops, "What do you know about gods, Mana Burn?"

What? My mom caused all this? That can't be right.

"I suppose you don't mean alicorns."

"No. I mean those who created this world and the primal alicorns themselves."

"Not much, honestly. I remember my mother talking about an entity called Discord, but he disappeared long before the corruption."

"There were three of them - Discord, Nightmare, and Harmony. I'm not going to go into details, but they are beings of raw essence. Their bodies, memories, energy they possess is all that one universal essence we call, for the lack of better understanding, divine power."

"You said your body was made of it. Are you a god? Immortal and able to slice Corrupted with ease."

Alright, it might be dumb, but there is a little sense in that, right?

"I'm neither a god nor immortal by any means," Cromach chuckles, "Just an unaging griffon who got pulled into things he did not understand. It's always like that. I possess only a miniscule fraction of what gods can muster, and it still makes me not age. I died and got revived into a divine body. Over time, I learned to harness the divine power and make it manifest in certain ways."

I recall the thunderbolt coming from the sky and scorching the corrupted griffon just as Cromach cleaved him in half.

"The lightning."

"Yes, that is the manifestation. Plus, items close to me for a long time absorb a little of my essence. That's why my axe can go through most mundane materials with ease. The Corrupted are tainted by the divine power we fought, but it's unfocused, as I said. If there is a similarity between Corrupted and the Vigil then the Corrupted feel like a byproduct of massive, uncontolled divine power tainting fauna and flora."

He rubs his eyes and continues.

"Yes, the longer I talk about it, the more it seems like the remains of Harmony festered within the soil of the sacrificial valley until the area itself was tainted enough to transform an unsuspecting random explorer."

"How do we stop it then? There are Corrupted like me, those who have minds of their own. Others can be torn away from the evil presence in their heads."

"We... don't?" he shrugs, "You don't understand. IF there is an organized will behind all this, even as weak as it has to be for you to be able to break its influence, it is deep inside the land itself and penetrates every wild Corrupted. And if there isn't a malevolent presence behind all this, just the remains of Harmony's hatred towards us within the divine presence inside every Corrupted then you are asking about wiping out an entire species."

"But-"

"Look, this is all guesswork. Only one thing is certain - when our business in Manehattan is over I must visit the Barrier, whatever it is. The coincidences piling up are too much to be ignored."

I calm down a little. Time. If we have something in abundance then it is time. Maybe...

"Alright," I focus on something else. Specifically, on a familiar photograph hanging on the wall. The one Desert Shade was looking at with such disgust. It shows a red-maned, red-eyed, black batpony mare. Next to it, there hangs a photo of a bronze-coated alicorn with light blonde mane. There are more framed photos of those two accompanied by Cromach and an earthpony I recognize from the statue in the main room of the mansion. I point to the photo of the villain-esque mare, "I've seen her before. That's Joy. I had no idea you knew her."

Cromach squints at the picture and raises an eyebrow.

"You must be mistaken. That mare is- was Choking Darkness. Don't laugh, she didn't choose the name! She died in the same incident as me when we were attacked by the Vigil cultists. Unlike me, she was impossible to resurrect. However, while painful to watch, red and black color scheme is not too out of place among batponies. The common misconception about black and red being the stigma of evil is complete nonsense though. The name is terrible, I agree."

"She looks exactly like Joy. Only with membranous wings and without a horn, of course."

Cromach just shrugs.

There is a ton of pictures portraying Cromach with many more ponies. The walls of the office look much like those of my mother's 'room of memories'. The most prevalent are of him and the bronze alicorn, and the second place is firmly taken by those of him and a black mare with white mane and tail. On a closer look, the mare's eyes are different each. I grin as I spot a picture of her spread on a couch attempting to look raunchy. Her well-toned body criss-crossed with scars defies the setting too much, though. There is a line written on the bottom part.

"To Crom from Connie," I mumble.

"Good eyes," he grins and scratches his head.

"Marefriend?"

He nods.

"My second real relationship. From my student to my marefriend and later... wife."

"What happened to her?"

"Fortunately, nothing bad. She died of old age."

"Sorry for dragging out old pains."

"It's fine," he sighs, "It looks like the old world is not letting me move on anyway."


	28. Manehattan Sunrise: Transmission

Ducking under the wide swing of a well-built Protector, I weave in a quick jab with my tail and take a bite from its side at the same time with a sucker mouth I grow on it in the instant of the attack. It makes me feel much more comfortable not having to use my own mouth and taste the tainted flesh. A surge of power revitalizes me mid-jump, and I get on the Protector's back, careful about tentacles growing from it in an attempt to shove me off.

There is a little trick I recalled the Corruptor Queen in Canterlot using, which has helped me immensely in feeding off another Corrupted recently. I can't replicate it on the cellular level, of course, but enough to a degree allowing me to incapacitate a Corrupted enemy quickly and efficiently. Hair-thin needles protrude from my body and pierce the Protector's flesh at the point of our contact, growing backward spikes to prevent him from shaking me off. They secrete a version of digestive acid, melting off the upper layers of the enemy's skin and flesh, and allowing me to absorb it. The deeper lodged needles serve to drain blood from my target.

As long as I retain my morality, I guess equinity can be put aside. I'm pretty sure that's the conclusion Nightshade came to a while ago.

I also made sure I feel nothing from the draining process other than a steady flow of energy into myself, not unlike waking up after a restful night.

The Protector's legs give out and he keels over. I stop absorbing him and drop off. He stares at me, exhausted but still defiant.

"All done?" I hear Cromach's heavy breathing coming from a pile of four concussed Hunters lying in the snow of the forest floor. He is sitting by a female Breeder watching our 'practice' with fear and barely contained lust. After all, we are the powerful alphas in this area now to her. I can feel her disappointment when she nuzzles and licks Cromach's face, and all he does is pat her head like a dog's.

Over past week, I've been joining Cromach in his outside training. I don't know whether it's his usual behaviour or whether he was only stunning Corrupted we found out of respect to me, but he still deserves some recognition for that. Today, we have found a pack of Corrupted nested north of Manehattan. They must have moved in recently, because I can still feel the shift in this territory's composition. They attacked us when we moved deeper towards their Breeder's location, and lost quite drastically.

"Blrbrbfl!" the Breeder's three tongues slobber all over Cromach's face. He just flips her away from himself and pulls her into a hug. She begrudgingly presses her back against his chest and grumbles to herself.

"Are we staying for round two?" I nod to the passed out Protector and the concussed Hunters.

"If you can tell this one," his talons ruffle the Breeder's oily mane, "to stay with her group and not follow us back to the city then no. I'd hate to punch her out as well."

"Female Breeders are mostly docile unless riled up. If we leave now, she'll just lie down somewhere safe around, and when the others wake up she will nurse them back to health. It's just what Breeders do, apparently even male ones, although I've never been on the recieving end of that. Have you ever, you know, succumbed to the desire to... have your way with one of them?"

"At my age, I need a little bit more than just a free roll in the hay, no matter how good, to get me going," the griffon chuckles, "Also, I kissed one once and nearly lost my marbles. I've got enough of a brain not to risk anything more."

As we leave the Corrupted behind and walk back to Manehattan, Cromach returns back to business.

"So, how's your recovery going?"

"Fine, I guess," I shrug, the territory dependence of Corrupted hit me harder than I expected, "I've never noticed it before because I haven't been gone from Ponyville for too long, but I can't recover fully until I'm back home. I'm not sure if I'm going to get worse, but I definitely am not going to get any better than now."

"Good to hear it," Cromach nods, "because I've got a plan ready. It depends purely on how your radio in Ponyville works, but we're going to combine it with an Order assignment and kill two birds with one stone."

"Oh? What Order assignment?"

"The griffon law increasing the amount of community service of ponies for even minor infringements has passed, and it's time for us to show they overstepped their boundaries."

"Des said you commited terrorist acts from time to time."

"Actually, it's not as simple. We don't straight up kill random griffons living here whenever we are mad about something. That would hurt us more than help. No, we actually have a decent number of allies even among police forces, and they tipped us off about certain griffons running a slavery ring. As luck would have it, one of them owns a radio station in the city."

"Luck?"

"Higher guiding force, whatever you want to call it. I'm pretty sure there is a will with its own goals somewhere out there."

"Interesting approach. How did you come to that conclusion?"

"Through too much of too improbable crap happening to me too quickly."

"Heh. So, about the radio station..."

"Yeah, we're going to do few things at once. You, me, Desert Shade, Lyam, and three Order members. First, we'll capture the main studio and broadcast a message proclaiming our intent to 'punish griffon slavers' over all frequencies in Manehattan. While that's going on, you and I will hijack a long-range dish directly on the roof of the building, connect a device which will let us take control of it from there, aim it towards Ponyville and send a message you will pre-tape before we leave. The other Order members will break into our slave lord's office, beat the location of any more incriminating evidence out of him, and then publicly execute him."

"Ummm... isn't that a little too much?"

"Remember, pony lives don't matter to him. I would love to give him to authorities and wait for the verdict, but the verdict would be him going free. His gang abducted ponies nopony would miss. They can't hide with nopony to protect them and would end in the situation again. Police will not care nor look for them, trust me. This way, we will send a message that no amount of wealth and influence will protect a bastard AND do a good thing at the same time."

"You are killers," I say flatly.

"Yes. Are you still with us?"

And that's it. No attempts to blame it on greater good or anything. Just pure admission and conviction about being the right choice. Hard to argue with that.

"I am. My mother will change all of that."

"I definitely hope so."

* * *

"Sooo, how does this work?" I ask, presented with a microphone in a soundproof booth back in the Order mansion. A mare is watching me from behind a pane of glass, pushing sliders and buttons on a complicated-looking dashboard.

An intercom speaker built into the ceiling hisses, and a female voice answers:

"When the red light in front of you lights up, you say your piece. Make it short and snappy so you can set it on repeat before you have to GTFO. I doubt you'll have more than five minutes before they call for police."

"Okay."

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

The red light above me pops to life, and I lower my eyes to the lectern where a message I prepared before lies.

"To princess Twilight Sparkle. Mana Burn here. I'm sending this message from Manehattan. Neither Guiding Light nor Shadowstep are in a situation to help with you know what. The good news is that Manehattan still stands and there are hundreds of thousands of ponies alive here. Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing. The city is run by griffons using ponies as cheap workforce, slaves, or organ banks. The princesses and Equestria are mostly unknown things to them, legends at best. I'm not in the greatest shape so I can't be sure to get back to Ponyville safely through a wilderness full of corrupted griffons. A griffon by the name Cromach is helping me recover and says his name should mean something to you or princess Luna. Things here are beyond my knowledge, so I think I need you here to consider what to do next."

I wave at the recording mare, she nods, and the red light dies out. The ceiling speaker crackles again.

"Alright, let's check if it was recorded correctly, and then I'll make a copy for everypony involved in the mission just so you don't lose it on accident."

* * *

"The great Bardini and his entourage need no introduction!" one of the Order members posing as a posh-looking servant joining us on the transmission mission slams his hoof on the reception desk in the lobby of the radio station.

"I... I still need some ID, sir," the young griffon withers under the pony's gaze.

"Is THIS enough?" our 'negotiatior' throws a newspaper open on a page where a fat but well-built brown griffon poses on a royally decorated stage.

So, how did we get into this?

As it turned out, Cromach's information sources reported that the our targeted station owner paid a hefty sum of gold in order to get a renowned griffon cellist and singer in one to perform here in Manehattan in a two-hour special broadcast. We waylaid the great and only Alfonso Bardini, the brown griffon Cromach is currently posing as, in his hotel suite, tied him up, and paid his servants for silence with the singer's own money. Those unwilling to take the unexpected 'day off' joined the famous griffon in his chemicals-induced sleep.

It was only a matter of time for Cromach to take Bardini's performing clothes, stuff them with some pillows, and because he had dyed himself brown before we left the mansion all he had to do was to stay posh-ly quiet while we, his servants, did the talking for him. Granted, our Bardini is a little taller and much more toned, but we believed his well-known clothes should cover the little differences. We couldn't do anything about Cromach's bright green eyes glowing with divine power, in light of which we decided to make him even less approachable by making our 'servants' a little more aggressive.

My disguise was more difficult considering my size, but I managed to shrink myself a little so that now I look only like a very large earthpony with sunglasses. I can see just fine through them, but nopony can identify my corrupted eyes. Thankfully, there were enough outfits in the Order for ponies of various sizes and shapes so that I could pick something extra covering. In short, I look like a special agent crossed with a bedouin. I had no clue what either of those looks meant until a nice dresser mare showed me some pictures.

"Well, well," the harrassed receptionist staggers, "you still need to undergo a security check."

"A SECURITY CHECK?!" our spokespony blows up, "YOU invited US here into this... for lack of a better word... city!"

"Is there a problem, miss?" a guard lured here by the commotion asks.

"See the griffon there?" she points her hoof at disguised Cromach, "Notice anything familiar?"

"You are early," the guard looks at her suspiciously. It is instantly clear he knew what he was getting into before coming to interact with us directly.

Our mare doesn't skip a beat. She and the others must have thought through all possible scenarios.

"The great Bardini refuses to arrive five minutes before the broadcast. He needs to get to know the studio, to have his pre-performance rest, to pick the right outfit," she nods to a trolley stacked with suitcases the two other Order members are keeping from toppling.

"You will undergo a quick patdown, all of you. Then you will be shown around. We will perform a standard check of your luggage and then we'll send it up to you. It won't take long."

"The great Bardini refuses to let anyone touch his instrument," she pouts.

The guard walks over to Cromach who is trying to look so insulted that any more infractions might end his 'visit' to this continent prematurely. A gigantic cello case on his back containing a real cello, his battleaxe, and our radio hijacking tool is gently lowered on the reception desk.

"I need to see-"

Cromach opens the container, interrupting the guard.

"No touching," he hisses.

The guard looks and looks, taps the case with his talons repeatedly, then nods.

"You can go. Stellar!" he yells, and a mare in her twenties wearing a ruffled suit rushes to his side, "Show the maestro to the studio."

"Y-y-yes, sir."

"And stop fidgeting, or you're going in the report."

"Sorry, sir," she gets a grip of herself, but I can see her trembling. As Cromach puts the case back on his back, she smiles at us, "Follow me, please."

Phew, infiltration successful.

Everything goes smoothly. She shows us the studio where Desert Shade and Lyam stay under the pretense of making sure the sound levels are correct for the performance. Cromach thinks up a crazy request for some rare snack or whatever the tongue-twisting name I'm not going to butcher is and the three other Order members leave to get it. They will, of course, pretend they got lost inside the station when encountered. All that's left is for me and Cromach to get to the roof.

As we're ready to leave the comfortable dressing room before the station owner decides to greet the great Bardini in person, the mare intern trips over my flowing clothes. In her in impossible clumsiness, she miraculously wraps her hooves around me mid-fall and somehow strips the tunic off me completely.

"Ah-" she yelps and is immediately silenced by my claws wrapping around her muzzle. She stares, eyes wide and trembling all over.

"Calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you," I lean closer and whisper. Releasing my grip a little, I see her tearing up, "I said you'll be fine."

"Nuh uhh..." she shakes her head. I let her go, ready to silence her again if she screams. She just whimpers quietly, "They'll sell me back to the Empire..."

"I thought you worked here."

"She does," Cromach steps in, helps her up, and points first at me and then at my lost clothes, "Most ponies are born as servants. If they work hard and reciever recommendations from their employers, they earn their citizenship. Of course, if they don't they either stay as slaves or... material. Griffons know that and abuse it as much as possible."

I give the intern a questioning look and she nods.

"We are going to change that," I say firmly and grit my teeth, "The sooner the better."

"But... but you are a Corrupted. How do you speak? How did you get here? Why-"

I put a claw on her mouth.

"The pony kingdom of Equestria is rising again. Some Corrupted and ponies are working together to make this land a place to live for all of us," her eyes bulge even more, "Now, I'll knock you out so you don't get into even more trouble. You will wake up soon and completely fine."

She whines as I grow a thin needle from my tail and inject a mild anesthetic agent into her neck. She goes limp, sprawling on the floor.

"How long?" Cromach asks when the mare is completely out.

"Half an hour, hour tops? I haven't really tested it on ponies yet."

"Then put your clothes back on, we can't dawdle. If we're asked, you say that Bardini wants to watch the sky or some esoteric crap. I'll look as unapproachable as I can."

He lifts the cello case which must be crazy heavy with ease. I mean I could do that as well, but I'm a Corrupted. Speaking of the thing...

"How did you trick the griffon guard back in the lobby to let the thing through? Is he one of yours?"

"Heh," Cromach grins and we leave the changing room, "The good thing about having my kind of reputation among ponies is that they are willing to share some secrets, especially magic, that Imperial agents have to torture unicorns for. The reason why the Order is hidden in plain sight is that we have mages tirelessly keeping us ahead of whatever scraps of information get to the Empire. If anypony looks inside the cello case all they see is a cello, and their desire to keep looking evaporates instantly. It's a subtle enchantment the griffon devices can't detect... yet."

Thankfully, the staircase leading to the roof is unguarded, and we quickly slip through a door locked with a padlock Cromach cleaves off. The roof is filled with radio dishes, antennae, and power cables. Cromach knows his way around and leads us towards a large central dish equipped with hydraulics. Few minutes of tinkering later, the box of dials and buttons he brought with himself is linked to the transmitter.

"There, I found an ancient map which showed the coordinates of old Golden Oaks library. As far as I know, the crystal tree castle grew in its place. Even if not, the spread of the signal should be sufficient for some makeshift recievers. Now we let your message run for a minute or two, pack our bags, meet the others at the studio, and fire up the teleporter home."

"No epic escape through the cityscape?"

"I'm pretty sure the station will be surrounded by soldiers soon enough. One-way teleportation onto a static exit is our best way out of a sticky situation."

"Why didn't each group get a teleport device or whatever it is?"

"First, I'm not leaving the mission unfinished in case one of us messed up. Second, I don't trust Lyam and Desert Shade not to lead an armed platoon into the mansion. I've done some digging on her and she is a mercenary well-respected even in the Empire. Not for being a griffon tool, definitely not, but it pays to be careful."

As soon as we see clouds of police griffons centering on the radio station we know the time's up.

The inside of the station is in panic, but with so many unarmed and terrified ponies and griffons we don't even have to knock anypony out. At least not until we reach the barricaded studio. A squad of griffon guards aim their rifles at us.

"The great Bard-"

I drop the act when they instantly pull the triggers and harden my skin as much as I can. The impacts feel like a hailstorm, but eventually the guards have to reload. Next to me, Cromach looks from behind the dented cello case, lets it go, and roundhouse kicks it straight at the enemies. I follow suit, almost literally, and transform my claws back into hooves in order no to kill but knock out.

As soon as those inside the studio see us through the soundproof, reinforced glass they open the door and let us in. All five of our accomplices are already waiting.

"What now?" Desert Shade barks.

"Now we go home," Cromach nods to the three Order members still wearing the clothes of Bardini's servants, "Prep the portal."

"Wait," I stare at him, "YOU didn't have the portal device?"

"Did you think I would rather sacrifice my subordinates than myself?" he smirks, "Also, it's not really a device."

The Order ponies create two interlocking circles, one from black pebbles and one from white ones. Two of them are unicorns, and their horns flash brightly. I suppress my instinct to affect the source of magic with horn rot, and...

...after a quick falling feeling appear in a brightly lit cellar swarming with ponies in white robes.

"Any injuries, sir?" a stallion whose outfit is screaming 'medic' rushes to Cromach, who just waves him away.

"I'm fine, go check the others."

The medic bows and starts bothering Des and Lyam.

"What now?" I ask.

Cromach shrugs.

"No idea. Depends on what Twilight thinks up. All we can do about it is wait."

"Time is what you immortals have in abundance?" I ask, smug about being able to use his words against him.

"Time and patience. There are things for which I'm willing to wait eons, Mana Burn, eons. Things and ponies."


	29. Manehattan Sunrise - End: Negotiations

I've been in Manehattan for a month, and the city is a marvel I could never even imagine. Giant buildings that are understandably called skyscrapers block the view of the sky. Neither ponies nor griffons generally have their own houses, they live in something called apartment complexes where they have their rented suites. At least that is similar to the life in the underground enclave. Being this close to each other, one would expect the Manehattenites to know their neighbours like family, but the opposite is the case. There is little to no sense of togetherness in this city. Everypon- everyone is trying to climb the social ladder, and they have no time for casual acquaintances. They have only few friends and their family to rely on in case of trouble.

What I could sense during my walks through the city every time was all-consuming fear, the fear that if you open to somepony else they will use you for their own benefit and then throw you away. Ironically, that made my disguise nearly meaningless. Outside of shopping districts, nopony dared make eye-contact with somepony as big as I am. Not even the griffon guards roaming everywhere bothered me unless I got closer to some important-looking building. I got the feeling that the griffon talons wrapped around the metropolis squeezed not only ponies, but most griffons attempting to just live in peace as well. That might mean the racial issue is more forced by the ruling griffons than a natural thing.

My hippogriff disguise confused the hell out of some shopkeepers, though. As it turns out, ponies DO have harder time than griffons in reaching public insitutions. They must go through separate entryways, much more guarded, some shops don't sell their wares to "lesser races", and guards take the griffon's side in every street conflict. That was only the tip of the iceberg. Since Manehattan spans the area of about the size of Ponyville AND the entirety of its farmland as well, travel time becomes an issue for both ponies and griffons. Longer trips are done via the use of carts pulled by exclusively earthponies.

I wasn't allowed too deep into the gated communities of griffon leaders, but the Order of the Silver Sun mansion and its surrounding gardens gave me a good idea how the other areas looked. The slums, however, were a... different story. I felt at home and was revolted at the same time. Ponies there definitely knew each other, especially because they would freeze to death now in winter if alone. Huddled groups wrapped in rags surrounded burning barrels. Moans and groaning came from dark alleys bearing cardboard signs with... price tags. Amidst all that, griffons roamed, looking for fresh meat. Sometimes literally.

I saw a mare sell her little colt to a griffon who had just completed a "transaction", was bringing several dripping bags from the door leading to a butcher shop, and didn't want to carry it all by himself. There were few empty-eyed ponies hesitantly waiting by the store entrance as well, and their desperate faces made me sure they were not customers. The mother explained how the few gold coins exchanging owners would help her get through the winter to the colt and how if he was nice to his "new owner" he would never have to starve again. The chilling part was how okay both the parent and the foal were with it. Not everything was that terrible, though. Throughout the city there were pony shops and businesses with signs offering specifically ponies a chance to do an odd job or simple errand here and there for few bits. That also meant there was a way for a pony to make it in the city and earn a respectable living. Those and other sights shifted my opinion and showed me that there was at least a tiny sense of community despite it having to be disguised or downright hidden.

It's strange how at home I feel now that I'm out of the city again with Cromach for practice. The silent landscape of white forests and knee-high snow might not be where I belong, but the peace and quiet is cleansing. The northern small pack of Corrupted we fought last time learned to respect and not attack us after the second time, so we set our sights west in hope of finding a group to fight with. The winter is making it a little difficult since it seems that Corrupted prefer spending time resting rather than fighting and hunting.

That means that for several days in a row we will be returning without a proper combat.

"It's been three hours and still nothing," Cromach stands on his hind paws, stretches, and drops back to all fours, "I didn't know Corrupted hibernated."

"Neither did I. It's my first winter as one. I don't feel any different, though. Perhaps it's just a matter of having nothing to do rather than having to conserve energy. They might all be vigorously humping in a cave somewhere."

"I thought you could sense other Corrupted far away."

"I could sense every single Corrupted or tainted mind in Ponyville because I am a part of the territory there. It's not a hive mind as such, no telepathy. It is... we are all one and many at the same time through the soil itself. This place belongs to somepony else and I won't be able to sense them unless they are close, let's say half an hour of walking away."

"Oh well," he shrugs, "Fresh air never hurt anypony. Let's go back."

A bunch of little black dots in the corner of my eye catch my attention. A cluster of corrupted berries is hanging high up in a nearby tree. My tentacles can't reach that far, and I hear Cromach chuckle as the three flail wildly upwards from my gaping maw.

"Can't you climb up there?" he asks.

"Nah, Corrupted are terrible with heights for some reason. Can you, ehm, help?" I scratch my head and look up, pointing at the berries.

"Sure, what are those things?"

"The best source of power a Corrupted can find. They only crystallize when the corruption within a territory is strong enough. A small group of Corrupted can only make few over the course of months. We can farm fake ones in Ponyville that aren't as good, but Corrupted like them anyway. Better than staying hungry."

"So you protect ponies for food?"

"I AM a pony," I tap my head, "at least here. And yes, Corrupted first appreciated the food, but there's more to it these days."

Cromach spreads his wings.

"Sure wish I could fly there, but this'll have to do."

He jumps up, claws on hind legs and talons on his front ones cutting deep into the tree bark. Using his wings for boost, he is able to quickly climb up, get the berries, and return on the ground. I chow one down and feel the rush of immense power coursing through my body. All exhaustion, every hurt associated with not being in my territory flows away instantly.

Note to self - all we have to do to have our Corrupted move around is find a way to keep the berries from dissipating on a longer trip.

"Oooooh yeaaah..." I shiver from the tips of my ears to my tail.

"You look much more presentable now," Cromach gives me a wicked grin, "How about we, in light of us not finding any suitable subjects, make us a more interesting practice."

"No," I shake my head, "I honestly prefer not risking getting critically wounded right after finally recovering due to a stroke fo luck. And without your weapon, I doubt it would be fair the other way."

"Well," Cromach strips his weapon harness along with his saddlebag, "I'm up for a challenge."

"I'm serious. You can't fight a Corrupted like me straight up. Especially not after I've just eaten."

"All I'm hearing are excuses," he smiles, sticking his tongue out. His eyes are carefully measuring me up and down, though.

"Alright then," I transform the claws on my front legs into hooves not to kill the griffon, "Hope you have a good masseuse at the Order, because you're gonna feel this one."

After getting tripped up and thrown into a tree I reconsider my threat. Cromach is exceedingly strong even for a griffon. That's not the issue, though. I've never been trained in hoof-to-hoof combat considering it's no use against Corrupted. He, however, is tossing me around like a ragdoll. On top of that, his punches and kicks actually hurt. My skin, able to deflect a glancing blow from a blade or a bullet, feels every hit he lands on me.

The reverse is true as well, though, and the sparring ends the usual way for a Corrupted fighting against a non-Corrupted. Breathing heavily and sweating, Cromach is unable to land any critical blows or restrict my movement for long enough to take me out. I can easily see how he can take on an untrained Corrupted in an unarmed fight, though. After wriggling in the snow under my hoof, he sighs and stops.

"Still not good enough."

"Don't worry about that. I don't think any normal Corrupted could stand against you."

"I usually don't face 'normal' foes, Mana Burn."

"You hurt, anyway," I rub my bruised body, "Weapon or not."

"It's the same as with my axe. Divine power answers to wish or intent. My intent was to hurt you. Simple as that. Sadly, I just don't have the stamina."

"That's strange. If your body is pure divine power, then shouldn't you ignore basically any wounds or fatigue?"

"Divine power answers to my desire to be a griffon, Mana Burn, a living being. Despite some apparent bonuses concerning age, strength, and endurance I am only a griffon."

"Oh."

I help him get up.

"Let's go back," Cromach leans against me, "I think I'm done."

"I should be on my way back to Ponyville," I shake my head, "This boost of energy will not last long so I've got to use it while I can. The remaining berries will dissipate in few hours."

"Then I'll write a message to Twilight Sparkle detailing things in Manehattan. I know your observations weren't the most positive, but I think she needs to hear a more informed opinion. You can grab some of our supplies for the road and leave in the evening. Night doesn't matter to you Corrupted, right?"

"Not really, no."

Just as we turn back towards the city, an overwhelming pressure assaults my mind.

"Nnngh!" I clutch my head.

"What's going on?" Cromach looks around, axe ready.

"I... I... this power... Corrupted... insanely strong..." I keel over, gurgling through blinding headache.

The searing pain of needles hammered inside my brain grows and grows...

...until I pass out.

Clashing of steel against steel wakes me up. I'm dizzy and my eyes are blurry, but the headache is gone. Gone and replaced by the absolute sense of rightness.

"What did you do?!" hisses a new threatening voice brimming with murderous intent.

Steel against steel. Groaning and heavy breathing.

I jump up.

I'm home? How did I get home? Everything is telling me I'm back at Ponyville.

No, I'm still in the same forest. Why do I feel, no - KNOW I'm home?

I'm not alone in my head anymore. The second mind inside me, the one really in control of my body, is burning with fury. Enraged beyond the boiling point by seeing me... with a griffon... collapsed and twitching on the ground...

My eyes shoot wide as everything suddenly makes sense.

My home isn't Ponyville anymore.

My home is where my Queen is.

"Nightshade?" I jump up only to see the familiar scaly form of the Protector Queen jumping around Cromach barely able to defend himself with his axe and grunting under every blow of Nightshade's claws against his weapon's handle, "STOP!"

Nightshade freezes mid-swipe, melts, and reforms from the ground behind Cromach.

"Why were you on the ground, incapacitated?" she asks and Cromach rolls away instinctively when he realizes she's behind him.

"YOU did that, not him. How?" I shake my head, surprised at seeing her here, "I just felt your presence and it knocked me out. What's going on?"

"Owwww, is my mere presence too much for the little Hex Guard?" a slick grin forms on her muzzle.

"Well, not anymore, but what the hay?"

"Heh heh heh," she flashes her mouth full of sharp teeth, and out of nowhere I can feel dozens of Corrupted surround us from all sides. Protectors, Hunters, Drones, Breeders, all materialize from the ground. I recognize most of the shapes of their minds. Nightshade's eyes roll back in the expression of utter extasy, "I learned this little trick from Spring. On top of being super useful it feel so damn goooooood."

"How many?" I ask, stunned. I thought Breeder Queen was the only one able to bring her hive with her.

"Only about a hundred," I feel her familiar hold wrap over my mind, "And yes, a Breeder Queen can absorb a lot more than I can."

"So, did my message get to Ponyville or...?"

"Or did I just force a bunch of Corrupted to leave their home just to blindly look for you? My dear Mana Burn, how about a bit of both? Speaking of your message, who is your hunky griffon 'friend' here?" Nightshade rubs herself all over Cromach still grasping his axe firmly. She whispers into his ear, "Wanna take a walk on the Corrupted side?"

He flips her over and raises from the ground in his front legs. I get the feeling he knows Nightshade is toying with him and is used to this approach from somewhere. When he feels the threat is gone he returns to his semi-carefree self.

"Are you into two centuries old griffons, miss?"

Old my ass.

"I'm into anything that can make me scream," Nightshade breathes wetly against Cromach's beak, and when he opens it in surprise her tongues quickly kiss him deep down his throat.

"MMHMHBHF!" the griffon's eyes bulge.

"Don't read too much into it. It's like a greeting to her," I wave my hoof, "She's taken anyway."

Cromach just drops her in the snow, gasping for breath.

"Owww, come on! I was having fun," Nightshade stands back up and whines, "and before you ask, Mana, Chilly is currently leading both the Separated and the Ponyville hive. I came with more... delicate company."

"Delicate?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Is that my cue?" a voice I love beyond all reason makes me smile from ear to ear and my eyes tear up.

"Mom?"

Invisibility spell fading, princess Twilight Sparkle walks from the shadows and wraps her wings around me in a tight hug.

"I'm glad you're okay, Mana."

I return the embrace in its fullest.

"That's not all," Twilight smiles and continues. Her horn lights up as she shoots a flare in the air.

Several minutes of cracking snow later, I see the familiar purple armors of the Hex Guard break through the forest.

"All clear, Twi?" one of the Hex Guards, a tall white pegasus mare, asks candidly much to my surprise.

"Yeah, you can drop the disguise."

Green flames envelop some of the Hex Guards as they transform back into black chitinous shapes. I bow before the mare talking to my mother when her shapeshited form drops and she turns back to queen Chrysalis.

"Black Ops, Hex Guard, and the Ponyville hive, all looking for me?" my head spins.

"I would uproot the entire enclave to look for you," Twilight doesn't stop smiling, "but no, we are here to 'negotiate' with Manehattan officials. Chrysalis' changelings have been in the city for a week already, scouting out the situation and looking for you. I was getting worried when they failed to find even your faintest trace."

"Good to know our defenses stopped even Chrysalis' infiltrators," Cromach chuckles and salutes Twilight and Chrysalis, "Greetings to both of you, if you even remember me."

Chrysalis thinks for a moment, but Twilight looks at the ground, biting her lip. The changeling queen starts laughing a storm.

"The thing in the ballroom?" Cromach pouts, "I still get nightmares from time to time."

"Come on, your face was adorable," Chrysalis' laughter dies down, "Of course I remember, Cromach. You and many, many others."

"Yeah, how could we forget..." Twilight looks crestfallen.

"We need to talk, princess, eventually," Cromach's voice turns serious.

"Yes, we do."

The atmosphere freezes. Cromach breaks the ice in the end.

"So, what are you trying to do with this small army?"

"Just state our business," Chrysalis answers instead of Twilight, "at first."

"If that was a hidden threat then I have to remind you that the griffon garrison consists of about a hundred thousand soldiers. Not to mention armed civilians. I doubt the forceful approach is going to work."

"Leave that to us," Twilight says sternly, "I am the princess of Friendship and the head diplomat of Equestria. I'll find a way."

Nightshade licks my ear and whispers:

"The way is meeeeee."

"There is a fleet of ships and submarines anchored in the city harbor," Cromach shakes his head, "We're talking about lead, rockets, and reinforcements able to come from the Empire within a day. Even if you could break through the main gate the city is too big to take with only a hundred or two soldiers."

"Don't worry about that," Nightshade licks her lips, "just make sure those who are neutral or on our side don't resist. My hive is already big enough as it stands."

Cromach blinks, finally realizing that Nightshade isn't here just to provide safe passage for Twilight and Chrysalis.

"The city ponies won't-"

"We will announce our arrival in two days, Cromach," Twilight ends the discussion, "I don't know how much influence you hold in Manehattan after all these years, but I ask you to use all resources you've got to make sure there is as little unnecessary resistance as possible."

"Your Highness, what about the negotiations?"

"I will give the griffons one chance to surrender Manehattan and talk," Twilight's voice is like steel, "If they don't... do you know why the area around Manehattan is clear of Corrupted? It's so that I can use magic freely without having to worry about horn rot."

I've never seen the alicorn of Magic use her power to the fullest, nopony has. In every fight with Corrupted she had to limit herself to a normal unicorn, but if there is nothing to stop her...

"Mana Burn!" Cromach barks, "You must come with me. Certain community leaders will need to hear your testimony if we're to prevent bloodshed."

Looking at my mother's determined face and Nightshade's excited grin, I believe the judgement has already been decided.

* * *

"Do you think it's gonna work?" I ask Cromach after two days of carefully presenting myself and my case in front of trustworthy ponies, "I mean, some of them clearly would do anything to end this oppression, but I'll be shocked if our effort, or at least the rumors your Order members spread, goes unnoticed by the griffons."

"I still believe Twilight has a peaceful solution in mind. I haven't talked to her in ages, but she's always been a peace-loving pony."

"With how little of us is left, she's like an angry lioness whenever a pony is in danger."

"We just have to hope. We did everything I could come up with on such short notice. From what I gathered most ponies have no idea what to expect anyway, but all they have to do is stay put."

"Yes. Let's hope that panic doesn't blind them completely."

Somepony knocks on the door of Cromach's office.

"Come in!" he answers and reaises an eyebrow when a white-robed Order member enters. A second later the door shuts itself and thick steel bars cover it. Cromach stands up and grabs his axe, "You are not one of mine."

"Good eyes," the guard grins, salutes me, and in a veil of green fire turns to a changeling, "I'll have to report this to my queen. Infiltrator Shimmer, her majesty's Black Ops. I'm here with a message. Princess Twilight Sparkle hopes your warning mission worked out because the show's about to start. You better get a good view for this one."

We rush through the halls outside and onto the observatory on the roof. The gated communities of nobility aren't surrounded by skyscrapers, allowing a clear view of the sky above.

The sky which rumbles with the sound of a thunderstorm ripping the world apart and goes completely dark. The awakening city of Manehattan finds itself rolled back to midnight.

Giant floating head of Twilight Sparkle looks down on the city from the sky, and speaks for the whole city to hear:

"Citizens of Manehattan, my faithful subjects. My name is princess Twilight Sparkle. Most of you have never heard my name. Those who have believe I'm just a legend. I am not. All of you, griffons and ponies, are living on the land of the ancient kingdom of Equestria the laws of which declare you equal and free to pursue your happiness. No conqueror, no self-declared tyrant masquerading as a saviour has the right to change that. You may not believe me, nor you might believe in yourself being able to change the state of things. However, let this be a clear message to anyone who hurts my little ponies."

At the main gateway of Manehattan, the monstrosity of steel, wood, and concrete surrounded by watchtowers full of armed griffons, just outside the range of machine guns the air wobbles. Squad after squad, Hex Guards and changelings are revealed as the mass invisibility spell fades.

The griffons don't look impressed at the numbers. Their eyes are locked on the purple alicorn standing in front with horn glowing so bright it looks like a hole into another universe. Wind swirls around the incoming ponies, and the smell of ozone permeates the air.

"This is my one and only warning, griffons. Surrender Manehattan, leave, and we will negotiate at the table."

Nothing.

The whole city is locked in shocked silence. Ponies and griffons in the streets are looking up at the sky.

"As you wish."

Unicorns in Twilights small army shiver from the sheer power the alicorn draws into herself. They, of course, know the theory of tactical spells, the high numbers of mages required to pull off even the smallest of long-range magical strikes. Their mouths collectively drop as the water in the Manehattan harbor starts bubbling and boiling.

Ships float high up in the air, the surface of the water breaks with submarines, titanic shells of steel, being ripped out of the sea. With tortured creaking of reinforced hulls, the vessels bend, dent, and break in the air, sending panicking griffons flying from the tears. Methodically, every member of the griffon fleet shatters, leaving the entire Imperial presence just floating debris.

Twilight's horn blinks out, and the wreckage of the griffon fleet drops back into the ocean.

The griffons manning the killzone at the main gate tremble, but their talons on the weapon triggers remain steady.

The projection of Twilight in the sky opens its mouth again:

"If that what you choose, then this is all I ask of you, Manehattenites. Ponies and even griffons, if you wish to stay safe and see a brighter tomorrow, do not resist. This place is your ancestral home, and I will make sure none of you ever wear chains again."

Twilight is pushed away from the projection, and the citizens of Manehattan collectively gasp as Nightshade's black, Corrupted face looks down on them.

"If you stay put and don't cause trouble for ponies or my Corrupted, you have my word you will be unharmed. However, if you do," she licks her lips and snaps her sharp teeth, "I promise I'll take care of you as of my own."

The projection fades and daytime returns. The griffons at the gate don't respond.

Twilight shakes her head.

"So I guess it comes to this. Nightshade?"

The Protector Queen's predatory eyes glow, followed by faint shimmer coursing through her flexible scales. With a wide smile, she steps right into the killzone.

The hailstorm of bullets sparking against her armor doesn't even slow her as she walks towards the main gate, presses her front leg against it, and pushes. Chuckling to herself at the panicked screams of soldiers as the titanic barrier creaks against its chains and hinges, she raises her other front hoof.

The gate opens, to the utter horror of griffons at the turrets. Nightshade mumbles to herself:

"Idiots. Perhaps you should have paid less attention to me and more to Chryssie's changelings already in your ranks."

Black biomass taints the streets of Manehattan, and Nightshade's Corrupted rush towards the wide open guard posts.

* * *

A crowd of terrified ponies gathers in one of many Manehattan squares. The griffon police force is outnumbered tens to one, but the chains of habit inside ponies are still keeping the civilians at bay.

"Go home," the police spokesgriffon yells into a megaphone, "Disperse!" he raises a pistol and shoots into the air, "Any pony remaining here after I count to ten will be charged with assaulting an officer."

"You hear that, worms?" a middle-aged female griffon escorted by two guards and about fifteen ponies with shock collars on their necks, "Move or it's the whip for you."

She presses a switch in her pocket and the collared ponies collapse on the cobblestones.

"Now get up and GO!"

Her guards kick the ponies taking too long to get back to their hooves.

Something clanks against the guard's helmet. The pebble thrown by a young stallion only disorients the griffon, but the police officer notices and shoots. The stallion in his late teens keels over accompanied by whimpering of the crowd.

"It's just a leg. He'll get a prosthesis and live his life again, which is much more than a pony deserv-"

Those words tip the scales, and the crowd goes berserk.

"PROTECT ME, SLAVES!" the griffon noble slams her talons onto the shock switch again, not realizing she's only crippling her 'protection', "Get up or I'll sell you for parts, you worthless-"

A growl nearby her makes her freeze and turn her head. The preoccupied griffon guards come to the conclusion that their employer is screwed, and take to the sky. A male Corrupted Breeder is strutting towards her, his heavy balls and dripping, erect penis captivating her eyes.

More and more Corrupted break through the cowering crowd, but her attention is only on the Breeder. A single whiff of his musk makes her eyes roll back and understand what her core as a mare really needs. She presses her head against the cobblestones and raises her behind. She learns quickly what being used like a thing feels like, and she loves it.

The shot stallion bleeding out nearby is being ineffectively taken care of by his friend, but hooves pushed into the wound can't stop the flow of blood. His friend is pushed away by a Huntress who runs her tongues along the leg shot through. The stallion's leg grows black and his fur oily, but the bleeding stops. His friend stares at his tainted form in horror, but when the Huntress leaves they both look for cover.

The fight in Manehattan rages on. Corrupted numbers grow with every fallen enemy, and unresisting ponies cower in hope they will be left alone.

Twilight Sparkle and queen Chrysalis teleport through besieged Manehattan whenever they see Nightshade's mushroomy taint marking the cleared streets. Their goal is the griffon fortress in the center of the city. What awaits them, however, is a chilling sight.

The largest square in Manehattan is filled with hundreds of sitting and crying ponies. They are surrounded by soldiers, ready to shoot. As menacing as the fortress in the background manned by armed griffons at every gun station, Twilight has eyes only for the terrified ponies.

"One more step or a flicker of magic, and we will execute them one by one," a griffon wearing a golden insignia of the mayor of Manehattan speaks through a megaphone from a balcony high up on the fortress wall. When Twilight nods, he gives he a smug grin, "Now, I don't care who you think you are, but ponies are too useful of a resource to be let go. The Imperial army will be here in few hours, and no amount of the Corrupted things you allied with will help you. Now, alicorns are almost unique, so we are giving you a choice. You will come with us for research, and no unnecessary pony gets hurt. If you don't... well, let's demonstrate."

The griffon waves his talons. A single soldier puts his rifle to the head of a sitting pony who whimpers and buries his muzzle into his hooves.

Click.

Twilight walks calmly through the motionless square. There is no sound, no movement, no thought from anywhere other than her. Time magic is the peak of wizardry, and not even she is the best at it, but she is good enough to completely lock out an area this big. She rearranges the soldier's front legs holding the rifle with the speeding bullet still in the barrel to aim at his own head.

With few seconds of the time stop spell left, she looks around and knows what is going to happen as soon as the spell ends. Her eyes glow red, and black mist swirls around her as well as around each of the guarding griffons.

Over the centuries, Twilight has not lost a single bit of her compassion, respect, and love...

...but she has grown very, VERY protective of what little remained.

The spell ends.

The city officials stare in horror as the soldier's head explodes in a shower of gore. They are completely paralyzed as all other soldiers in the square put a gun to their head as well, pronounce loudly and clearly-

"For Equestria!"

\- and pull the trigger.

The ponies turn their heads in disbelief, but huddle closer together when Corrupted start streaming to the square from all surrounding streets. Thousands upon thousands of Corrupted, mostly griffons.

Even Twilight stares at the masses able to wipe the city clean along with her, no matter her alicorn powers or the presence of Chrysalis by her side. All those overwhelming numbers of half-beasts kept in check by a single mind - Nightshade.

The Protector Queen arrives shortly after.

"Cool, I can make my own Titan out of all these," she gives the Corrupted legions a sideways glance, "It should be able to rip their little fortress in half."

"No," Twilight's strict voice stops her. Her horn flashes, and she say in a voice reaching to the griffons on the fortress balcony, "Lay down your arms, and we can negotiate your surrender."

The griffons argue, several punches are exchanged, and all of them return inside.

"Now can I eat them?" Nightshade rolls her eyes.

"Just wait," is Twilight's simple answer.

Not even two minutes later, the flag of the Griffon Empire flying proudly on the tallest spire of Manehattan is lowered and the fortress gate opens.

* * *

A griffon police squad holding their own in a corner store jump when their walkie-talkies spring to life at once.

"This is general Blackfeather transmitting on all frequencies. Lay down your arms. I repeat, lay down your arms and report to the fortress immediately. Any forces resisting after this command will be considered on their own. Over."

"That has to be a trick."

In their moment of shock, the barricaded door is broken by a towering Protector snarling at the group. They immediately raise their arms, fully knowing the futility of it. One of them drops his gun, sits on his haunches, and raises his talons.

The Protector walks inside, back tentacles quivering in the air.

Other policegriffons follow the first one's example.

Sniffing the air carefully, the Protector turns away and leaves.

"How about we walk back to the fortress so that no pissed off ponies rip us in half?"

"The streets are swarming with those things."

"To be honest, I'd rather take my chances with the Corrupted."

Wary of every shadow and movement, they walk through street after street. They are not alone. Griffons and ponies cowering in booths and news stands join them for safety. There is quite the small crowd walking through streets, completely ignored by prowling Hunters, when they reach the griffon fortress.

High up, a new flag is flapping in the wind.

A square of cloth showing a simple landscape. In the sky, there is a dark blue alicorn and a white alicorn dancing around the sun and the moon. In the foreground of the land itself stands a purple alicorn and a changeling queen shaking hooves. But in the background there are tiny black silhouettes tainting pieces of soil around them.

* * *

Twilight chuckles at Nightshade as they look down from the balcony at the returning soldiers and police forces.

"I'm surprised you didn't want your likeness on the flag as well."

Nightshade answers with a grin.

"Did you forget, Twilight? I am the land you live on."

"A chill ran down my spine as you said that."

"Heh. Plus, I made sure the tiny Corrupted on the hill left from your tail looks just like me. You can't see it from down here, though."

Twilight sighs.

"I owe you a lot, don't I?"

"Yeah, but you're paying it back in fun."

"How many?"

Nightshade frowns.

"Around four thousand ponies, some killed by griffons and some transformed by my hive. Thirty thousand or so griffons transformed or dead in riots."

"It's going to be more..." Twilight looks down at the growing mass of Manehattenites unsure what to do.

"Mhm. The griffons will come for the city, there is not enough supplies to last through winter, and I doubt you can relocate this many ponies and griffons without losses. This was the easy part."

"I prefer thinking about the good in all this. No more slavery, no more oppression, and I can sink the griffon fleet again after a good night's sleep. That should make them more open to negotiations."

"And what's the next step? Equestria is growing, but peace and habitable land are still far away."

"I know where you're going with this. Once we sort this out, we're going to the Barrier to see what's behind this and find out what happened to princess Celestia."


	30. The Origin: Twilight's Entry V

I'm a little distracted with everything that's happening these days. Taking care of two thousand ponies is different from having to organize and protect the citizens of a large city.

Shocking, I know.

The griffon fleet arrived mere day after we took over the central fortress. They had serious trouble getting to the city through all the floating debris, so they anchored within sight of the harbor and sent griffons flying to scout ahead. Apparently, the Imperial army had little to no experience with the flora of a tainted territory. The flytraps sprouting over night in spots where the land wasn't paved over took care of the flying threat almost instantly. We will have to clear those out later and make sure they don't grow again like Nightshade did in Ponyville.

The scouts were let go with our message of willingness to negotiate with the Empire. After all, it has been much easier for them to supply Manehattan with food and other vital products than it would be for us from now on. The Imperial fleet threatened us over the radio and when we refused to leave Manehattan to them they forced their way through the harbor and deployed the ground forces. Yes, some of them were foolish enough to try to gain an aerial advantage again, but the army learned quickly. It was obvious they didn't want to destroy Manehattan. Ponies are a valuable resource, after all...

Faced with over thirty thousand Corrupted, the army was torn to pieces.

Not literally. Nightshade had no desire to increase her numbers and she was already getting confused from having too many minds inside her own head. Thus, she was willing to sacrifice some of her newly increased numbers by forcing them to only incapacitate the griffon soldiers. Of course, it didn't work out perfectly, but we prevented the shedding of blood and other bodily fluids. When the invasion was taken care of and we allowed the disarmed griffons to return to the fleet, they changed their tone and sent for a diplomat. Over the next week while the negotiations went on, the Empire agreed to sending a disaster relief again.

The final binding treaty wasn't all I wanted, but allowed us to partially keep Manehattan.

The city is ours, and the griffon army retreated in its entirety. The "partially" part came in the amount of their help. The food, clothing, and other supplies they agreed to send our way were barely sufficient for about quarter of the city population. With what little we could scrounge up from Ponyville and the Crystal Empire we would raise it up to half. That was not enough. The business treaty helped stabilize the situation a lot more than anything else. Griffons want spells, artefacts, anything running on magical sources of power. In order to at least temporarily be able to trade goods, we had to reopen Canterlot mountain mining operations.

The good thing was that a lot of ponies wanted to leave Manehattan, with the city bringing them only bad memories, and were content with starting over anywhere else. Strangely enough, same went for quite a lot of griffons. With these volunteers, we were able to decrease the population of Manehattan to a manageable level. Nightshade had two conditions, though. The city had to accommodate both Corrupted and only partially tainted ponies and griffons. The Manehattenites were, and still are, terrified, but they didn't have much of a choice. On the positive side, Nightshade scoured her ranks for those willing to change their view of the world, and ripped them away from the common consciousness of Corrupted. These new Separated required others to teach them about the world past mating and food, and the police forces took them in rather quickly. Why? Because the second of Nightshade's conditions was that she would not forcefully station any of her Corrupted in Manehattan or between Ponyville and the city.

The Manehattenites are going to have to defend their city and caravans on their own. Now that I know the surface a little better, I realize how impossible of a task that is without ponies and griffons becoming friends, or at least allies, with Separated and Corrupted. It's an interesting circle, or triangle. Ponies and griffons need Corrupted and Separated for protection. Corrupted need ponies and griffons to artificially increase the number of tainted berries growing in their territory, plus the help of harvesting them. Separated, alone and overflowing with curiosity, don't want to fall back into the state of wild animals and thus need teachers. The survival of the city will require the cooperation of all sides.

Engineers, both griffons and pony, from Manehattan who travelled to Ponyville immediately shared their knowledge with our best and brightest who quickly felt much less bright and best. The following reconstruction of the Ponyville enclave started within days of the relocation. Griffon designs are replacing our old devices as days pass, and ponies are learning to fit into a new community. Sadly, we had to turn away those who still had enough energy to travel and send them to the Crystal Empire. Under Chilly and Spring's watchful eyes, the caravans got up north with little to no trouble, and Cadance's letters still speak mostly positive things about the new arrivals.

Of course there are trouble. Crime was mostly unknown in the enclave - unecessary, considering ponies lived close enough to know each other well and trust one another. Plus, there was nothing to steal. With the growth of Ponyville and Canterlot population, there were hiccups, mostly thefts and some "accidental" attacks on Corrupted. Tension is tangible in the air, but the longer the new ponies and griffons stay here and learn new things the easier it's going to be to get used to the Corrupted around. Nightshade didn't make too much fuss about her attacked subjects, neither did the victims themselves. Mostly because they were more confused than hurt by a group of ponies attacking them with clubs. The offenders went on a trial as if they had attacked other ponies. I doubt the Corrupted understood what was going on, but Nightshade assured me they enjoyed watching their shaking attackers climbing high up some trees and feeding them fresh berries they had to bring back.

Social issues are cropping up everywhere, especially due to the difference of world view between Enclave ponies and Manehattenites, but I believe both sides will get through this and emerge stronger, just like it was with Nightshade's hive at first.

While I was away in Manehattan, princess Luna, queen Chrysalis, and Bound Tome finished deciphering princess Celestia's journal. Bound Tome's cooperation was vital, because his connection with Corrupted allowed him to make sense of part of the magical cipher Celestia created via the use of her own corruption. Sadly, aside from one thing the journal yielded nothing new. The tracking of her journey, the improvised experiments on Corrupted they managed to catch, her and Frostbite's transformation into a Queen and King, everything ends with Bastion being sent back to Canterlot with the badly wounded the day before entering the Barrier.

However, the final discovery is fenomenal. Princess Celestia's ruthless experiments allowed her legion to combat horn rot and eventually led to a method of becoming immune to its destructive effects. Considering my mentor's methods were never supposed to be gentle, the method requires absorbing the essence of a Corrupted and making it a part of oneself, very broadly similar to a vaccine although this way the corruption stays inside. The afflicted Corrupted is drastically weakened to the point of near death which spells its doom if encountered with either a pony or another hungry Corrupted.

What now?

To be honest, I'm lacking a clear direction at the moment. We still cannot return to sending patrols scouring the surface for pockets of survivors. Most of the Nightguard and the Hex Guard are protecting the caravans between Manehattan and Ponyville. Chilly's Separated, considering the route between Crystal Empire and Canterlot is their territory, are keeping the roads north clear and visiting both Canterlot and the Empire from time to time to see what the city ponies are doing. I really like them. Nightshade is resting. She would never admit it, but the liberation of Manehattan was too much for her. She collapsed when the negotiations were over and Mana Burn brought her back to Ponyville. Next week she was barely able to communicate and recall who or what she was. She took control over way too many minds for way too long, and pushed them way too hard.

I don't want to ask her, but eventually I'm going to need a Corrupted sacrifice to grant me resistance against horn rot. She protects her hive as much as I protect my subjects, but this is necessary. I pondered princess Celestia's mistake for long enough. Going to the Barrier with a legion of ponies is pointless. Even when Celestia went there the Corrupted were too strong for the best of the best, and now, when all the territory is tainted, an armed conflict is downright impossible. Nightshade can't send her hive marching as far as White Tail Woods, and spreading her territory that far by slow conquest would be too much for her and would take decades.

What I need is a group of experienced individuals, well-supplied and with a way to share information with our home. The communication part should be possible after rebuilding the entire radio system inside the enclave. Supplies should not be an issue either.

So, who should I ask to accompany me on this journey?


	31. The Origin: Departure

The tainted glade in the central park of Ponyville, my sanctuary completely cut off from the rest of the world by a circle of black trees and thick, impassable vegetation... my "throne room". Aside from grey spots of winter sky above, nothing from the outside world reaches here. That doesn't, of course, mean I am cut off from the rest of the world, but it leaves anyone attempting to approach me with only one way to do so. Deep down, I know of every scent, every touch, every worry or inquiry of the Corrupted outside.

Through them, through the soil they walk on, I know that there is an armored unicorn coming this way. I've met her before, but I can't really recall her name or rank. Just another Hex Guard serving Twilight and Ponyville. She is looking around as she passes through the only entrance my circle of trees offers, eyes never leaving Corrupted lying in the snow here and there. Ponies might be getting better at concealing their fear of us, but I can sense her every nervous twitch, her fast heartbeat, and her heavy breathing.

In a way, that is a good reaction. After all, she is facing me.

With a salute, the guardsmare stands at attention and calms down, ready to do the task she was sent to do.

"What does Twilight want?" I smirk and stand up. Hex Guards don't come to me unless there is a problem.

She clears her throat.

"Queen Nightshade, Her Highness Twilight Sparkle asks for your presence down in the enclave throne room."

"Yeah, that was obvious. Why, though?" I yawn, letting my jaw split and show the mare all three tongues I can wrap her with and make her never think of another pony again.

I've never been a prude even as a pegasus, but turning to a Corrupted Queen shot my libido through the roof. I am in complete control these days, mostly because my lack of control before nearly cost me everything, but I still love teasing ponies. Making my slim, scaly body with curves any mare would be jealous of stretch as I stand up, I whip my tail and flash her my dripping wet marehood with short tentacles darting back and forth from inside, hungry for a victim's mouth to invade.

It is just a game. I'm not going to seduce or attack her, but watching her breathing quicken and her mouth get dry is a victory in itself.

As I take my first step towards her and my black mane reflects the grey light from the sky, she gasps and recovers from my show.

"I... I..." she bites her lip and breathes out slowly, "Her Highness wishes to talk about an upcoming expedition and the final part of some decrypted journal. I don't know anything more, I'm afraid."

"Alright, I'll be going right away. Anything else?"

"Ummm," she turns to leave and stops. I pass her easily due to being much taller, not bothering with any sort of sexy walk or anything. Twilight wouldn't have sent for me if it wasn't important. The guardsmare trots to my side, "Thank you."

"What?" I raise an eyebrow. I don't remember doing anything for this mare in particular.

"For everything you are doing for Ponyville. I know a lot of ponies don't like you and are afraid of you, but I felt like I should say it. Thank you."

The corners of my mouth rise against my will and a drip of moisture mists my eyes for the tiniest fraction of a moment.

"Don't be silly. I was born here, I still have friends here, although much less of them after... this happened," my long, prehensile tail runs over my side, "I love this place as much as you do."

As we reach the main street of new Ponyville, she salutes again and walks off to continue her patrol. I... once again after a long time walk towards the Enclave without trying to avoid others or without having to look like an unapproachable predator. I smile at a passing farmer pulling a cart with his equipment. He nods back hesitantly.

I am not a Separated, I didn't run away from the darkness inside me. I am not a pony, I'm not weak and defenseless. I am not a simple Corrupted, a mindless beast drowning in someone else's distant hatred and rage.

I am Nightshade.

Shaking my head at the unnecessary drama, I smile to myself as I descend through the underground enclave. In the crystalline throne room similar to any other throughout the roots of the crystal tree castle thingy aside from size, Twilight and Mana Burn are waiting for me, sitting by a circular crystal table.

I can sense uncertainty in Mana's mind, and Twilight is fidgeting in her seat, trying unsuccessfully to hide it. This can't be good.

"So, what's the issue, Twilight?" I walk over and sit down a seat away from her. She looks at me from a stack of papers in front of her.

"How would you react if I told you we found a vaccine for horn rot?"

Stay... calm...

Don't let her know anything. Don't move a single muscle.

What does she think I'm going to say? Horn rot is the only thing keeping unicorns from starting wiping Corrupted out like they tried with all other races according to history. It probably wouldn't be enough, but this peace has worked only because until now I've been working from the position of strength. Spreading a way to fight us among common population can't end well. Somepony organizes a small separatist group and then 'whoosh!', we have a war. My Corrupted are easy to control for an ex-pony like me because they are content, well-fed, and satisfied with their company. I don't have the power to keep an entire hive in check in case they feel threatened.

Act like a responsible ruler!

"How did you find it? I thought we agreed you wouldn't conduct any experiments without my permission..."

"I didn't," Twilight taps her papers, "Princess Celestia did. It's all here, the entire process and everything."

"Mind if I have a look?"

"Of course not. Just ignore the gory details. My mentor didn't consider Corrupted... sapient."

At least that request is easy to fulfill. I didn't consider Corrupted too intelligent until about quarter a year ago. I was right, they are pretty dim without a guide.

I skim through the decryption report. I would pale, if it was possible, especially if Twilight actually thinks about requesting me to do this. In short, it forces a Corrupted to give up its essence until the point of crippling weakness to make a single unicorn resistant to the physical effects of horn rot. In my hive, in pure theory, it would be possible to do so without the Corrupted being killed by, well, anypony wanting to. Here in Ponyville I could protect the afflicted Corrupted until it recovers, but no. I'm not letting this happen anyway, definitely not on a larger scale.

"Twilight?"

The way she answers my unspoken question will reveal everything.

"If... if I could replicate the process without causing too much damage to a Corrupted, would you be against protecting all the remaining unicorns from you?"

Aaaand now it's on me. Thankfully, her answer was satisfactory.

"You are not doing... this," I let my front leg melt and absorb the papers, "this atrocity to any of my subjects," she opens her mouth and I raise my reforming claws, "But if you, through this research or any other means, find a less invasive way we can agree on then we can talk again. You're gonna have to keep your unicorns on a tight leash, because once they get a taste of power they're going to want more, and guess who is going to be the first target of the purists."

"Nightshade, I know more about unicorn supremacists than you ever will. I have already considered that side of things. The reason I am asking for your permission is to know if you are ready to keep your subjects on a leash in case accidents happen, which they inevitably will. I don't have supreme control over every single pony, but I don't want the actions of few idiots to ruin what we needed two centuries and a miracle to reconstruct."

"Find a reasonable way and then we'll talk again," I shrug. This is all just a hypothetical scenario anyway at this point.

"I'm happy to hear you're willing to at least consider it. Now for the more... difficult request."

I narrow my eyes at the word 'request'.

"I need you to allow me to perform the procedure on myself. For that, I need a Corrupted, preferrably a willing one. However, I need this to happen within few a week at most."

"Look, Twilight. I know you want to make sure you can take care of Ponyville with at least one less thing to worry about, but-"

"No. I can leave Ponyville in the hooves of Luna and Chrysalis. I need to be protected because I'm assembling an expedition west to the Barrier."

"Your 'ritual', at least from what I understand, has a miniscule survival rate. I'm not sending a member of my hive against those odds. Would you force your ponies to undergo such a thing, no matter the reason?"

"No, but I want to do this while the world isn't breaking down under my hooves again. That's why I want your oversight. I want you to make sure the procedure isn't fatal. I want the used subject to survive as much as you do, but I MUST have this if I want to get to the root of all this."

"Twilight, no. That's my final answer. Until you find a less threatening way, no. Not gonna happen. NO!" my claws score grooves into the crystal table.

"Ehm," Mana Burn coughs, "I volunteer."

"No," I shake my head.

"It is my choice, my Queen. I may be one of your hive, but my will is my own."

"It's amusing that you think so."

With no effort on my part whatsoever, he stands up from the table and his claws flick Twilight's horn. Then he jumps up and down like an excited dog, and sits back down on his chair. His body is mine. I can easily force him to rip Twilight's horn out and stab her in the throat with it. Mother or not, I own him.

He gives me a stern glare and says simply:

"I trust you enough to still believe my will is my own."

And now I'm the bad guy again. I let out a heavy sigh.

"Do what you want. If you want to end up a bowl of black pudding then so be it."

Twilight and Mana Burn exchange glances.

"Will you help?" Twilight asks.

"One thing, Twilight," I look her straight in the eyes, "I want you to promise me your resistance will never be used against my hive. I might be able to take you on, but to them an alicorn free to use her power..."

Why am I even asking this? It's not like she would answer honestly if she had an ulterior motive. Am I scared? Is it a Corrupted instinct or is it me? I've changed in past months more than I ever wanted to.

"Nightshade," she closes her eyes, "you have proven yourself to be stronger than almost anypony else I know. Princess Luna and queen Chrysalis know about you, and while they don't know you as well as I do, they accept your hive, Chilly's Separated, and everypony who wants to live with us in peace. Day after day, ponies are learning to live with your kind. I'm not talking about you being important because you keep us safe from wild Corrupted. I grew up in Ponyville that welcomed anypony with open hooves, I want such place to exist again. That is exactly why I need your help to get to the Barrier, discover what is turning Corrupted naturally rabid and stop it if possible. I'm not going to make it there with the threat of horn rot at every step."

"I, umm, ate your notes on the procedure."

Don't blush, don't blush, don't blush!

"That was a copy, of course. Plus, I remember the entire thing by heart. So...?"

"Yes, I will help you not kill your own son, happy?"

"Great!" the alicorn jumps, smiling from ear to ear, "Can we do it now?"

"What, here?" Mana Burn tilts his head.

"You want him to bend you over here on the table and ravage you? I like that," I smirk.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!" they both sqeal.

"Well, the notes mentioned the essence of a Corrupted. You know... essence," I keep going.

"Essence as in blood or flesh, although now that you mentioned this..." she winks at Mana Burn.

"You can't be serious, mom."

"What? Am I too old for you?" Twilight attemts a seductive wiggle which comes off like an earthworm trying to move. The alicorn isn't too used to what Manehattenites call 'club scene'.

"Come on," I join in, "I clearly remember you asking me to help you bang your mom. You wanted her so much you wanted to fight against my will."

"I... I thought... blood, I wanted..." Mana Burn's grey coat can't exactly blush, but his ears are turning dark pink.

"My own son telling my I'm ugly," Twilight shakes her head, "I have failed as a mother."

"Exactly! How do you think I feel?" I lament as well, "A Corrupted not wanting sex? I have failed as a Queen."

Mana Burn huffs, finally realizing both Twilight and I are having fun at his expense.

"Very funny, both of you. Can you just put me in a blender or whatever is the entire essence thing?"

"He would rather bleed to death than sleep with me! It's like Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns all over again!"

"MOM!"

"Alright, alright, I'm done. Got any ideas how to make it less lethal, Nightshade?"

"I think the butchery Celestia did was only to weaken a Corrupted's regeneration and magic resistance so that her ritual would work on them. With enough control and Mana Burn's cooperation, I think I should be able to force his body not to heal quickly. It's up to you to make the rest work out."

"Good, let's go to the hospital."

"Yeah, one last thing I got from the notes. You DO realize the only thing this procedure prevents is the destruction of your horn and magical veins, right? You will still nearly literally orgasm your entire being away if struck with horn rot. There will be no release when your horn shatters or melts, your nerves will be so overloaded that you will collapse."

She nods.

"Yes, if that happens I will need others to protect me, but it still gives me a chance to act without risking the entire future of ponykind by going outside."

In the hospital complex, Mana Burn lies down on the already prepared operating table, and Twilight, accompanied by a group of other unicorns, begins.

I don't understand much that's going on, I just prevent Mana Burn's body from causing trouble. It takes less than an hour, but in the end Mana Burn falls asleep and Twilight wipes her forehead.

"Did it work?" I ask.

"I've gone through all the stages I should have according to the journal as the stolen essence flowed through me. I don't really want to test it, though."

"Wouldn't it be better to test it here rather than have you collapse during a fight with a hostile Corrupted?"

"True..." Twilight bites her lip and instructs the assisting doctors to stay here a while, "Can you use the rot on me?"

I absorb a Hunter walking on the surface and respawn him here in the operating room. Horn rot is draining even for the user, so I'm not willing to do it myself unless necessary. The Hunter obeys me with only a little hesitation, and Twilight keels over, spasming and squirting her juices all over the crystal floor, much to the shocked staring of the doctors.

"From what I heard, it feels really good," I give them a wicked grin, and they all step away.

After about a minute, Twilight falls unconscious, but I feel no addition to my hive. It seems the alicorn is still herself AND she still has her horn. My work here is done.

"She is physically fine," I say and watch everyone flinch, "Get her somewhere comfortable and keep an eye on Mana Burn. Send for me if anything goes south, understood?"

They nod, eyes not really focused.

"Understood?" I repeat.

"Yes, miss!"

They finally start rushing around, and all that's left for me is to leave.

So, Twilight wants to go to the Barrier herself. Impressive. Hmmm, what should I do? Can I leave the Corrupted here in Ponyville without supervision? I think I can. The rules I've been ingraining into them since my taking over are in effect even without me forcing anything. I still need somepony with authority to keep a semblance of command structure around. Mind after mind, I flip through every single member of my hive and assess who could become Ponyville hive steward for a while.

An idea comes to mind, I should ask my favourite travelling companion to come with me. I order a Hunter near Canterlot to go a little further north and relay my message to the Separated.

"My Queen," a voice wakes me up. I must have been lost in though so much I didn't sense anypony coming.

The limping grey Corrupted, barely awake but smiling, walks over and sits down next to me.

"Huh? Mana Burn? Didn't we just finish the operation?"

"It's been two days, my Queen."

Whoah! Detailed search through a mind must take much longer than it feels like. Fortunately, the answer to my problem came here on its own.

"I'll be going with Twilight to the Barrier," I announce.

"I will-" he groans as he tries to stand back up.

"You will stay here," I shake my head and put a claw to his mouth, "Don't argue! You are in no shape to do anything, and I doubt you'll recover soon. You are staying here, and that's final."

"Okay," he hangs his head. I can sense a feeling of inadequacy growing inside him.

"You will take my place as the leader of the Ponyville hive."

"WHAT?" his ears perk up and he looks at me, blind panic growing.

"Temporarily, of course. If Twilight takes a squad of Hex Guards or something, they will all die or be transformed. No way around it. I've sent a Hunter to ask for Chilly's assistance. Considering how I lost track of time, he might be here already."

I quickly scan my Corrupted for any signs of somepony interesting entering my territory. I get way more answers than I expected. Among others, the King of Separated himself as well. It looks like Twilight was planning to go whether or not she achieved the horn rot resistance.

"To the Corruptedmobile!" I jump up and point towards the exit of my dark glade.

"What?" Mana Burn stands up much more slowly, and with a lot more creaking of bones and huffing.

"Get on my back. We've got visitors and I think it's Twilight's doing."

"I can walk."

"You can barely stand."

"Mind if I speak freely?"

"Don't ask stupid questions."

He chuckles.

"Alright. I don't need to be anywhere right now. It's not my place to question your orders, but I'd rather walk around Ponyville and get a good look at how ponies react to Corrupted. If I can't go with you on your journey or something then I want to fulfill the responsibility you put on my shoulders the best I can. To be honest, until now I've only looked at statistics or official complaints. I didn't have the time to see how things are up close. Who knows? Perhaps I might spot some issues you might have missed."

As expected of Twilight's son. No matter how weird a responsibility is thrust upon him, he will do anything to handle it well.

"I might not see eye to eye with your mother on many things, Mana Burn, but you make both me and her proud. Just don't forget... we might not be ponies, but-"

He walks over and hugs me.

"I don't think I've ever met you while you were still a pegasus, Nightshade, but no amount of physical and mental transformation will change the fact that you are from Ponyville. You have given other Corrupted the best of you, and I will protect them as my own, just like I would do for ponies. Trust me," he whispers in my ear, leans back, and boops my nose, "Anyway, it's not like you're not coming back, right?"

A great weight is lifted from my shoulders.

"Heh, of course not," I flex my muscles hidden under black scales that move as well, "I've got a ton of Queening in me still. Lot of ponies to tempt and taint and so on," I push Mana Burn away, "I've already instructed the entire hive about you. You won't have the same mental control that I do, but they understand words. Anything else?"

"Good luck?"

"Thanks," I nod, melt into the ground, and reform at the entrance to the underground enclave a moment later. Leave exhausting teleportation to the mages, this is the only right way to travel. Oh yeah, the surprised looks of ponies as I sprout from the ground in front of them are always chuckleworthy.

Down in the throne room, I am greeted with a group of visitors. I've seen most of them, but not all.

"Is there any trouble?" Twilight asks when she sees me stride in.

"For me? No. I'm here so there's a little less for you. Chilly and I are joining whatever expedition you're setting up."

"What about-"

"Mana Burn is taking my place, and I have no doubt Chilly has arranged things up north as well."

"Indeed," the throne room door opens again, and the white King enters as well. He nuzzles my neck as he walks by. I have no idea how he keeps himself so safe while still retaining his soft skin and coat, but I blush and requite the gesture, "Greetings, everypony."

The visitors are taken aback at his calm demeanor. I sort of miss the speechless confused Hunter, but Chilly is still Chilly, only with more responsibilities.

Just like me.

"Welcome, both of you," Twilight bows, and the others follow suit, "I guess we can push the departure date a little later. Your presence should be worth it thousandfold."

"I am ready to leave at any time," Chilly shrugs, "The Separated are in good... hooves."

"Same here," I join in, "Mana Burn's not gonna screw up."

"Alright," Twilight nods, "Let me give you a quick recap then. I've dug up some old maps, and in conjunction with princess Celestia's journal I have a very clear idea where the Barrier is. After consulting sir Cromach here," she gives a quick glance to one of the visitors, a tall white griffon, "I have an... idea what we might find there. I'll tell you more when we're on our way. I think princess Celestia's mistake lay in taking a whole legion of ponies. She couldn't move quickly, with so many ponies to transport, or even stay patient because she would run out of supplies. The ten of us here should have a much better chance of reaching the place quickly. Plus, in terms of raw power we might be pretty close now that I can use magic, sir Cromach is here, and both you and Chilly are joining in. We will be taking with us a griffon mobile radio station since magical communication won't reach back to Ponyville. With the upgraded transmission system here in Ponyville we should have a clear way to talk to anypony at home. So, the plan was to leave this afternoon so that we would reach the end of Ponyville territory and break camp for the first night. That way we can traverse hostile surface through the day."

"As I said," I wave my hoof, "I'm ready to go whenever."

"Well then," she coughs, "the second official expedition to the Barrier will commence in an hour. I'll meet all of you at the enclave entrance. We'll talk about any of your concerns on the way. Briefing over."

I watch everypony in our little group leave in pairs.

Twilight and Mana Burn's brother Knowledge.

The white griffon from Manehattan, Cromach, accompanied by a mechanical pony I've never seen before.

Bastion, the Corrupted Protector of Canterlot, and his walking fleshlight, the unicorn I met briefly called... a bondage magazine? Bound Tome, right, ehm...

A blonde, black female hippogriff followed by an another griffon, neither of whom I've ever seen before.

And last but definitely not least, Chilly and I.

Considering what history books said about princess Celestia taking the legion of the best soldiers from all guard branches on the first expedition...

...I think we can take on anything that stopped them.


	32. The Origin: Link to the past

If there is something good to be said about Twilight, it's that she is a master at planning things out. According to schedule, we broke camp few minutes ago at the western edge of my territory. I often forget how slow travelling like a normal pony is, but I can't just pick all the others up on my back and carry them further. I was content with sleeping outside, it's not as if the snow bothered me or Chilly very much, but Twilight ordered two tents for us as well before we left. Needless to say, we decided to use just one.

The forest clearing shielded from the worst winter has to offer is our first stop, and I examine the strange half-magical, half-technological contraption sitting inside a firepit and emanating heat. With my muzzle down and close to it and my behind pointing up, I must look like an overly curious dog. Soft breathing behind me reveals I'm being observed as well. There is only one answer - buttwiggle. The breathing goes louder for a second, and I turn around with a smug grin.

A brown griffon with black head feathers is standing there, cautious but with an inqusitive look. He's the guy who came from Manehattan with the hippogriff girl.

"See anything you like?" I wink at him.

"I see a lot that terrifies me," he answers openly, drops his saddlebags, sits down to the heating unit, and stretches his talons towards it, "Ooooh, this always feels nice."

"Scared of poor old me?" I sit down next to him, pressing my side against his.

I think he saw through my teasing, as he doesn't flinch like many others did when I touched them.

"Yes," he nods, "I saw what you did in Manehattan. When I came to Ponyville, I was expecting to see half-tainted ponies mindlessly slaving for Corrupted."

"Aaaaand?" I nudge him.

"I was wrong," he mumbles, "Sorry, ma'am. It's just really difficult to be so close to somethi- somepony whose kind has tried to kill me nearly every day since I left the Empire."

"I can make your stay here extra... pleasant, if you want to get to know me better. What's your name, by the way?"

"Lyam, ma'am, and I was warned about you. Aren't you and the white Corrupted an item?"

"Chilly? We are, so?"

"Wouldn't he mind you flirting with me like this?"

"Pfff," I wave my hoof, "We spend as much time together as we can, but he leads the Separated living on a strip of land connecting Canterlot and the Crystal Empire while I keep Ponyville safe. When we're not together, it's free game for each of us."

"He is literally inside THAT tent!" he points to a triangle of cloth.

"Is he right here? No. That means I can do what I want. One point for Nightshade!"

"Are you serious?" he gives me a deadpan stare.

"Look, I used to be a pony. I know how different it is. I love him, I owe him everything, I belong together with him. As a Corrupted, though, sex is just like food or air. You wouldn't apologize to a piece of meat for eating lettuce, right?"

"I guess I can't really understand that since I'm not one of you."

"We can change that," I lick the side of his beak.

"Stop it, please," he sighs.

"Fiiiiine," I roll my eyes, "So, about you and the hippogriff chick..."

"Desert Shade? She asked sir Cromach to join this expedition and I tagged along because I had nothing to do. With the griffon army out of Manehattan, I didn't have an employer to scavenge for. And from what it turns out, the purple alicorn princess is paying for food."

"Aaand the danger of being attacked and transformed at a moment's notice?"

"That changes from my everyday life how?"

I lean even closer to his ear and whisper.

"That I'm already this close to you."

He diverolls away as I snap my teeth like a bear trap and start laughing at the frazzled griffon picking himself back up. His wings shoot open when a set of white claws lands on his shoulder.

"Calm down, mister Lyam. If we weren't on your side you wouldn't be here anymore," Chilly's raspy voice, still recovering from decades of silence, cuts through the night, "She's just wild like that, if you are the first one to blink then you are her prey."

Come to think of it, the heater doesn't emit much light in comparison to a normal campfire, so while Chilly and I have no trouble seeing, the others must be seriously hampered by the darkness. After his rise as the King of Separated, he is a little taller than me, and when he sits down behind me, I just ease myself into his embrace and cherish the soft touch of silky fur.

Yellow glow flows through our campsite as Twilight Sparkle steps out of her tent. Her son, Knowledge, comes out from the tent next to hers immediately as well. Another white unicorn with light grey mane, I wonder who the father was. I don't think I've talked to him more than once, but he seemed less trusting than Mana Burn. Possibly because I turned his brother into a Corrupted, ehm... maybe.

"Is everypony alright?" Twilight asks cheerfully, "When sir Cromach gets here we'll go over the suspicions we have."

"So you DO have an idea what we're going to find, right?" I ask.

"Based on an event that transpired in the place where we are going AND some circumstantial guesswork I have a theory. Whether or not it is correct we will find when we get to the Barrier. Just wait few more minutes and you'll know everything we do."

"Hmmm," I just shrug and relax, still wrapped by Chilly's legs.

Bound Tome and Bastion decided to share a tent as well, obviously for humping reasons. I would tell them not to be too loud later, but I doubt I'll hear them anyway over my and Chilly's... resting. It's pretty funny, seeing a unicorn one third of the size of his bodyguard and knowing how wild Corrupted get with a willing mate. It must be like a squirrel trying to store too many nuts for winter, mild pun intended. Well, since Bastion doesn't mind carrying a little library Bound Tome took with himself on this trip, I guess neither of them has issues with the other's needs. The duo sits across the firepit from me and Chilly, but cuddle together like us.

Desert Shade's black coat is hard to pick up in the darkness, but her blonde mane breaks the camouflage as she walks over to Lyam and sits next to him and us. She's strange. I can't put a claw on it, but she weirds me out a little. Everything I can see about her just says - hippogriff, but the feeling I get from her screams something different, and I can't tell what. She nods when she catches me watching her.

"I'm not late to the lecture, am I?" she asks Lyam, who shakes his head.

"We're still waiting for Cromach and Bucket," Lyam answers.

"Kay," she takes out a biscuit from her saddlebag and starts eating. Inspired by her, all the other non-Corrupted members of the expedition find something to bite into as well.

Cromach joins us shortly, followed by the weird mechanical pony, seemingly deep in thought.

"Can we begin?" suggests Twilight.

"Yeah," the griffon sips some water from a bottle hanging on his belt, "I'm not sure where to begin, but I'll try to keep it as concise as I can. Remember, this is all a theory and guesswork that might not be related to what's going on in any way... but it likely is."

He takes a long breath.

"There are three gods of Equus - Nightmare, Discord, and Harmony. Despite the names, their nature isn't so obvious. These three gods have created three primal alicorns who possessed a significant fraction of their power - Life, Death, and Magic, as well as a bunch of weird creatures some of which still live to these days. Over ages, the gods and alicorns created more and more beings from which ponies, griffons, and other thinking races evolved. That's not the important thing. The key thing to keep in mind is that these gods did not cooperate, the fought each other on the battleground that is this world, and their creations were supposed to be their tools supposed to further their power. You see, the gods created this world using their own essence - divine power. That means whichever one of them possesses the most influence over the world becomes the strongest and might, this part is just a guess, eventually absorb or destroy the others. Anypony still not asleep after this history lesson?"

"Listening intently, sir!" Bound Tome's eyes are wide open, just like his mouth trained from taking Bastion's huge d- nevermind.

A series of grunts and nods follows Cromach looking at each of us.

"Alright, let's continue," the griffon takes another sip, "From what we gathered, the gods used to work together, each one being a part of the cycle of life. Discord represents chaos and creation, Nightmare destruction and order, and Harmony the existence and intent inbetween - free will and evolution. However, free will is a bitch, and Harmony decided to become the ultimate power and defeat the others. Since the battleground was this world, he gave the emerging intelligent races several tools they could use to weaken the other gods. The most well-known tool were the Elements of Harmony, a weapon capable of purging the power of the other gods. Discord and Nightmare found out about this, and united to banish Harmony from this reality into the void between stars. The result is called by some researchers the Pact of Harmony, and meant that Nightmare sacrificed so much of its power that it now could act only via a host. Discord lost both control and magnitude of his power, and turned from an omnipotent being to more a mischievous spirit. Harmony was banished completely. However, his tools, created from his divine power, thus the essence of his existence and will, remained. Discord and Harmony continued toying with the world, but when it became too much ponies or alicorns used the Elements against them over and over, causing lasting damage."

He nods towards Twilight, who takes over.

"The last known uses of the Elements were princesses Celestia and Luna turning Discord to stone, princess Celestia banishing princess Luna to the moon-"

"Oh, the Mare in the Moon prophecy!" Bound Tome jumps like an excited schoolfilly.

"Exactly. Nightmare possessed princess Luna, but thankfully princess Celestia wasn't strong enough on her own to use the Elements fully, so Luna only got imprisoned instead of destroyed as Nightmare's host. When the effect of the imprisonment faded, I and my six friends became the Element bearers and used them effectively enough to purify princess Luna. Next use was... hmmm," Twilight rubs her muzzle, "Discord again, I think, after escaping from his stone prison. Then Tirek, a centaur able to steal divine power. And then... I think I should leave this one to sir Cromach."

"No no," the griffon shakes his head, "the next one was still yours."

"Right, my friend Rarity, one of the Element bearers, got possessed by Nightmare as well and purged with this time only partial help of the Elements connecting all Bearers together."

Cromach GLARES.

"Fiiiine," Twilight huffs, "There was another incident involving princess Luna. After returning from her banishment, she had only one friend - her batpony bodyguard Sharp Biscuit. I remember this story well because I was involved in the search for other Bearers who had gone missing one by one. Luna's bodyguard got killed by a unicorn by the name Blazing Light, and in her grief, she gave into the Nightmare once again. Blazing Light, I, and several others have joined forces to purge Nightmare from Luna one more time, and strike a blow against the god. The mentioned unicorn was special, he could absorb magic and divine power just like Tirek, only Tirek stole a pony's abilties as well, Blazing stole it only as energy to be used."

She nods back to Cromach.

"That was an extremely... abridged version," he frowns, "but let's not dwell on the details. Several more Nightmare's hosts appeared within next three years, and with the help of Blazing Light they were defeated, I was there with him every time after the final Luna incident. However, such a streak of losses for the Nightmare, especially against somepony who stole parts of its power each time, left the god weaker and weaker. Discord stopped exercising his power due to love issues."

"What?" I chuckle.

"The god fell in love with a pegasus mare and focused on his personal relationship rather than influencing the world," he explains matter-of-factly, "So, with the two gods weaker than ever, the remains of Harmony's will in this world returned to its original goal. Harmony possessed a pony who created a cult set on bringing the god back in its entirety from the void. The cultists got powers cimilar to what Corrupted can do these days, only much... MUCH greater. You can regenerate quickly, are strong, and your mere presence changes the land to your image, but they could barely be hurt in the first place and reality bowed to their will. Blazing Light, I, and several members of the Order of the Silver Sun tracked the cultists' operations to a small valley west from White Tail Woods. They were on the brink of bringing Harmony back to this world which would have caused forced assimilation of everything into one undying, uncontrolled, agonized organism, and we confronted them. Faced with the god, its host, evolved cultists, and being hunted for high treason by princess Celestia, we somehow prevailed, but Blaze died," Cromach stops and stares at the ground.

The silence leghtens.

"Cromach?" Twilight asks in a soft voice as if she feels responsible for what happened.

"You know... even after two centuries... after having a wife... it still hurts," he mumbles.

"He was the alicorn in the photos in your office, wasn't he?" Desert Shade breaks the solemn moment.

"Alicorn?" Bound Tome, ears perked, wants clarification, "Didn't you say he was a unicorn?"

Cromach wipes his eyes.

"Blaze was forcefully ascended by Harmony who wanted to use his ability to steal divine power to destroy other gods completely. Despite the attempts at manipulating him, Blaze saw through it and forged his own path. In sharp contrast to his personality, he became the alicorn of Hope. In the final fight, he held the returning god off long enough for the rest of us to destroy Harmony's means of coming back."

"Ehm," Twilight continues when Cromach doesn't seem to have anything more to say, "Sir Cromach thankfully left out the fact that the god's return was only possible because I failed and used the Elements on princess Celestia's orders against Harmony's strongest possessed servant which only gave him more power. The situation was... complicated at the time."

"That doesn't matter, princess," Cromach sighs, "What happened happened. So this is all we've got. Harmony was entering this world through a dimensional rift which closed when it was halfway done. Half of the god's form was left outside in the darkness, and half got scattered all over the ritual valley. Later observers examining the area reported the remains disappeared completely. My guess is that they were absorbed into the soil of the valley where they festered and eventually transformed some unsuspecting pony visitors into the first Corrupted. The entire theory about Harmony being behind this somehow is based on the location of the first sightings of Corrupted, Corrupted abilities being similar to those of Harmony's cultists, and the pony hatred of Corrupted 'hivemind' that might be based on Harmony's rage against the race that defeated it."

"So wait, are we supposed to fight a god?" I'm not sure whether to be terrified or excited, but my body takes over and lets out a bloodthirsty grin.

"This entire Corrupted thing might not even be intentional. We'll just have to see for ourselves," Twilight ends the briefing, "Nightshade, are we safe here or should we stand watch?"

"We're fine here, my Protectors are patrolling the borders. Just have a good night's rest. It might be our last for over a week."

"Alright," Twilight finishes her drink which smells suspiciously like tea with a little rum, and stands up, "Good night, everypony."

Desert Shade and Lyam go mess with the heater while the others disperse to their tents. Chilly and I lie down, heads too full of information to have our desired 'active rest'. As it turns out, we aren't the only ones.

"You listening?" I whisper as my sharp ears pick up several conversations at once. Chilly nods and shushes me.

"How is your assessment of the Corrupted and Desert Shade going?" I can hear Cromach's muffled voice.

The robotic droning of Bucket answers:

"I cannot extrapolate any further without seeing them in action. Aside from the Manehattan incident, I have no real information about their power. According to Twilight, though, their history is overall on the positive side, so I would not worry."

"And Des?"

"Biologically, she seems very similar to you."

"A grand-granddaughter or something? I mean, Connie and I had a son, but he got killed when the corruption was spreading. He was a wild sort, so it's not out of the question he had a foal he didn't know about."

"Like father like son?"

"I'll have you know I am a one-pony griffon."

"I apologize. However, speaking of your one pony, my scans of Desert Shade conclude that she is a being of divine power just like you are. She has no control over it, and the structure is different, less mutable than yours."

"I understand just about nothing from what you're saying."

"You have control over your power, and your subconscious is making the divinity inside you imitate griffon body perfectly aside from your wish to remain until Blazing Light's extremely improbable resurrection, hence your unaging nature. Desert Shade has no conscious control or knowledge about herself, but her body was made to be a hippogriff replica. From her lack of ability to interact with her power, I assume she was created by somepony else who knew what they were doing. She is likely slightly more durable than a normal pony, but that is about the extent of her unnatural abilities."

"So, she's not an issue."

"Her case is more interesting than dangerous one, that is all. The interesting part being that, just like her cutie mark, her divine power represents a trinity of influences. Three familiar... traits."

"Three divinities? Discord, Nightmare, Harmony?"

"No, that is unrelated. I stole a feather from her wings and several strands of hair, and I can safely say her body is made from three builds of genetic material. One is very similar to yours, as I said, one, accorging to my old database, correlates well with Blazing Light, and the final strand is a near-perfect copy of Choking Darkness, with some added improvements. Biologically, she bears miss Darkness' coat, your eyes, and Blazing's mane."

"What?! That doesn't make sense. Darky was killed without ever having a foal."

"So my records say. I am going with the theory that someone or something followed your adventures, attempted to possibly assemble your combined potential, and failed miserably."

"Hmmm, we aren't getting to the bottom of this here, aren't we?"

"Not without cooperating with Desert Shade herself."

"Then let's leave it. At least I'll have something to do if we survive this field trip."

"I thought you wanted to travel. After all, your are reasonably wealthy."

"I wanted to travel all over Equestria first, but you know... mushroomy ground, horny predators everywhere. I don't think any travel agency in the Empire organizes good tours these days. But hey, things look like they're getting better, and time is what I have in abundance."

"As do I, it seems. Twilight Sparkle did great job building me."

"You're welcome to keep me company. It has worked so far," I hear the griffon yawn, "Let's stop the guesswork here. I'm pretty tired from the history lecture."

"You left out a lot."

"Only the personal stuff none of them need to know. Good night."

"Alarm clock set to sunrise."

I listen intently, but it seems like everypony is sleeping or trying to do so. Well, aside from muffled moaning from Bound Tome and Bastion's tent, but that was to be expected. Oh well...

"Night, Chilly."

"Good night."


	33. The Origin: On the road

Day two of our trip passed by without a hitch with us following the ancient train tracks leading away from Ponyville. Snow, high vegetation, and eventually a forest slowed our progress, but Twilight said we were on schedule so we didn't need to rush too much. I got the feeling that the power my Corrupted have inside my territory sort of drove the wild, roaming packs further away. For that, or possibly completely unrelated reason, we've spent over half a day by walking through what felt like a demilitarized zone. The mental marks of Corrupted started appearing in the late afternoon, but were either solitary or in such small packs they posed no possible threat and knew it. Still, when we broke camp for the second night, I made some... security arrangements.

"-and the first watch will be Cromach and Nightshade. Desert Shade and I will take the second one. Lyam and Knowledge will be next. Bucket and Bastion take the morning watch since they don't really mind taking the worst one. Chilly and Bound Tome can have a rest tonight. We'll rotate the schedule each night," Twilight finishes her plans for today.

"Thank you, your Highness," Bound Tome, nearly passing out, stumbles to his tent and I hear a body drop like a sack of potatoes. The city unicorn is not used to marching whole day like this in the slightest.

Strange pairings, but at least everypony will get to know everypony. The trip should take over a week, so I'll have a chance to talk to the guys I don't know. As the others disperse to their tents, I lie down by the heating unit working on the lowest setting and perk up my ears. I hear snow crunching under paws and talons, so Cromach must be joining me. He starts walking around with his back turned to the heater not to ruin his night vision. I let minutes pass in silence, watching him.

Alright, time for a little experiment.

"Hmm?" I hear him hum and walk a little distance away into the forest.

So, his senses are just a little above average, nothing special. Good to know. Am I paranoid? Nah, can't be. I just want to know who I'm working with, that's all. Riiiight.

Hmm, a Hunter is coming our way, curious about...

...no, two, three, four Hunters. Skinny, starving runts, like most wild Corrupted. Should I let the griffon deal with them and observe?

No, even a small injury could pose trouble later.

"Come back!" I hiss loud enough for him to hear. Thanks to my obervations I now know perfectly well what 'loud enough' means in his case.

He walks backwards, not turning his behind towards the forest. Good, I get an eyeful of his big, muscular flank. Damn that guy's hot. Too bad he's impossible to seduce, he would make for a good night and maybe even better addition to my hive. Thinking Corrupted like Mana Burn are always a great asset, pun intended.

"What?" he jumps backwards when a shadow leaps at the prowling Hunter closing to our campsite and ends the Corrupted with a loud crunch.

"Calm down, we're not alone," I chuckle.

"Well yeah, that's the problem," he stands on his hind legs and grabs the battleaxe on his back.

The rustling in the darkness goes wilder, accompanied by muffled growling and yelps. Three Hunters, two, one...

...pfff, they let the last one get away.

The forest quietens down again, but I can hear Cromach's heart racing and his feathers rustling as he watches the circling shadows much more intently. So his sight IS good, he just had no idea what to look for before.

"You didn't think I would go on this expedition alone, did you?" I give him a smug grin.

His brows furrow, and then realization grows in his eyes.

"You did this in Manehattan as well, didn't you?"

"Yep," I wink at him.

Three of my very well-fed Hunters accompanied by a Protector walk out of the shadows and noiselessly pass between tents. His breathing calms down as he lowers his axe.

"You could have said."

"Do YOU trust me? Or are you just bearing with me because I'm here in the position of power, because you have no choice?"

"I see," he sits down with his back to the heater and spreads his wings, "To be honest, I don't know you enough to get a clear picture, but Twilight and the others trust you which is good for me."

"Do you want to know me better?" I purr and stretch on the ground, showing off my body.

"Actually, yes," Cromach isn't worried by my display in the slightest, "How was the life in Ponyville before you got transformed? Twilight told me you were sort of Ponyville's saviour, but not the whole story. Who were you before?"

"Wo, wu, what?" I blink, sitting up.

"I've had chicks, mares, and stallions throw themselves at me both due to my status and, well, looks. Granted, you can remake your body for raw pleasure from what I heard, but... I want to know YOU if I'm to trust you."

"I, um, well... I'm nopony special-"

I realize what sort of dumb statement I made and facehoof. Cromach hides his beak to his talons, grunting. It takes me a moment to gather myself.

"-I mean, nopony has asked me about myself since... since the last time I was in the club. Well, you know... when Ponyville was still just a bunch of holes in the ground. We had this little club where they traded some of the rations we got for homemade mushroom moonshine. They even had an old disk player and some music. I loved the place. I was half-wasted most of the time from chemicals I worked with as a Hex Guard alchemist anyway, but with the moonshine, flashing lights, and bunch of ponies unwinding after work I enjoyed every second there. There was this Nightguard guy I tried to drink under the table once. I had a crush on him and wanted to make him realize how cool I was, after few shots the drink went the wrong way and-"

I'm crying.

Not like a blubbering, sobbing wreck, just with tears streaming from my eyes at the memory of something forever lost. I love Chilly, but I wish I could be a simple mare, sitting in a dark, loud room and trying to look seductive... just for a while.

A pair of arms and wings wrap around me while I stare, paralyzed, into the darkness.

"-and now that's never going to happen because I'm a monster, a monster they can't even touch without the fear of turning into one themselves," I whisper.

I like what I've become, but that doesn't change the fact that what I've become is so detached from everything normal that how I feel about myself is... secondary.

"But you're changing all that," Cromach whispers in my ear, "Manehattan learned in a mere week. Yes, they were forced to deal with Corrupted. Yes, they don't like it. But they will learn, and it's up to you to make sure they learn the right thing."

"You know your way with ladies," I wipe my eyes, "I just wish words could make me less afraid."

"I am an old griffon, Nightshade. No matter what you've been through, I have faced death, bowels-emptying fear, and loss of... well, everyone. My parents were executed in front of me for my mistakes while cursing my name, my lover died because I wasn't strong enough. I was targeted by assassins, necromancers, alicorns and gods themselves. I have been through enough things to be sympathetic to your plight. Damn, I've spent last century trying to keep ponies from becoming griffon livestock and I believe you have the burden of the future of ponies and Corrupted on your back. And since we're here, and the change is starting to roll on its own due to all you've done until now, I believe you can do it."

"Okay, okay, jeez," I curl into a small ball in his embrace, "Stop that, I just had a little... mental hiccup. It's not like I'm going to stop doing what I'm doing."

"Good to know. So, about the Nightguard you had a crush on..."

"Oh yeah, he was-"

Twilight chose the right ponies for this job.

With ears perked up and senses split between my Corrupted patrolling the perimeter and conversation with Cromach, our watch just flies by.

* * *

Two days go by without nothing major happening. We bring the attention of many Corrupted packs to ourselves, but just my mental presence is enough to make them turn tails and run. Unless we find a hive led by a Queen, I can just play with their heads and prevent them from suicide by us if need be. According to Twilight's maps, we should be reaching the point where the rusty and broken train tracks are turning towards the north.

It's strange, old Equestria wasn't too covered with railroads despite Twilight saying it was home to millions of ponies. The majority of goods which didn't need to be transported quickly were moved via caravans, and the ponies who needed to use the train had to take rather long detours. Still, it was probably faster, otherwise it wouldn't have caught on.

I had no idea about any of that, but Twilight loves talking about history just to pass time. Her, Cromach's, Bucket's, and Desert Shade's reminiscing accompanied by Bound Tome's attempts to join in with knowledge gained by years of sitting among dusty books made the days far less dull. I was fairly surprised when Chilly couldn't contribute, having been a member of princess Celestia's legion, but he said he remembered only flashes with little to no continuity.

The travel is easier than before, since after we left the woodlands of central Equestria we entered an easy to traverse flatland. The snow is still an issue, though, and despite us making good time Twilight changed her prediction from a week's long trip to somewhere around possibly two weeks. We've got enough supplies because we found two corrupted berries on the way, so it's fine.

Then why do I feel twitchy?

"-and that celebration was called the Grand Galloping Gala. My friends and I attended every other year, mostly because princess Celestia asked us to. She was so bored with the usual plotkissing of nobles that she needed a distraction, and we always managed to turn the Gala into a near-disaster. Celestia loved that," Twilight chuckles, surfacing from her memories.

"The ground is shaking," Chilly announces.

And here was I thinking my blood was rushing to my head from the fast-paced march.

Scanning the area for minds approaching us, even my Queen powers stop after hitting a wall of pure rage and hatred. It feels like a mass of minds so tightly woven together into one big entity that I can't find a crack where to insert myself in. I know quickly enough that trying to force myself inside would only get me crushed.

"Some sort of a Corrupted entity, or many entities. I've never felt anything like that before. Maybe something tunneling underground and causing an earthquake?" I quicken my pace and all the others match it.

"No," Bucket looks in the distance, the blue circles in his black eyes turning as he corrects the focus, "Multiple quadrupeds with clear marks of Corruption approaching faster than we can run."

"Ponies? They don't feel like it."

"My database returns only one entry - the buffalo."

"It's a stampede!" Twilight catches on, "Corrupted buffalo stampede. We have to get out of the way."

"We can take on few buffalos, can't we?" I look at her skeptically.

"From what I can see the herd closing in consists of several hundred members. Even after seeing you in action, Queen, and with my limited database entries about Corrupted, I believe their bodymass will just roll over us."

Turning south, we run.

"Bastion, I-" Bound Tome lags behind and is immediately swiped by the Protector's tentacles and put on his back. That, in itself, is a clue that the situation is dire.

The other clue is the rumbling black wall getting closer and closer. I can now see individual shapes, but they are in such sync that none of them trips or falls.

No. When they get closer I have to correct myself.

They trip, they fall, individual bulky buffalo shapes get crushed by the mass of the herd, immediately absorbed, and recreated as new ones.

"We can't get out of the way in time," Chilly yells, "Nightshade, I need you to control my body while I focus on magic."

"On it," I split my mind and gain four more legs. This close to him, I can control such a strong will, although barely even without it resisting. In the back of my mind, I feel Chilly working powers I've never held.

His white horn shimmers with icy blue hue. The snow behind us hardens, turning into slick ice and spreading towards the approaching stampede.

"It works. Wohoo!" I grow an eyeball on my tail so I don't have to look behind, "Wait..."

The buffalo slow down as more and more slipping ones get obliterated by the ones behind them, but the sheer weight and speed of the herd making the earth tremble in fear keeps going over the mashed and reabsorbed corpses. Chilly keeps using his magic, though. Every second he can buy us is vital.

And as they get close enough for those with normal sight to see clearly, I know it won't be as much as we need.

A red beam of light cleaves the front lines clean through. The crystalline spirals on Bucket's horn go brighter and brighter as he fires several more shots. He cuts through the enemies like butter and I have no doubt his attacks will be more powerful as they get closer, but it's not enough. The regeneration of the entity, not any single buffalo but the herd, is too much.

They are only about a hundred pony lengths away now. I can see Twilight weaving a spell while galloping, but she needs Knowledge's help staying steady on the unstable ground.

"Bastion, if I collapse, catch me, please," Bound Tome grits his teeth, and stabs his shiny, black horn into his front leg. He groans, "Kill some of them, King. Now!"

Chilly reacts instantly, and a glacial stalagmite impales a buffalo in the front line.

The body blows up. Shower of acidic gore melts a giant hole in the herd. Those closest to the explosion melt, and some turn unstable as well. The ensuing chain reaction of exploding corpses rips out a clean chunk of the herd.

He actually killed them. The wimpy little unicorn actually killed them without a chance of regeneration. Scary...

The buffalo ranks smash together into a diminished, but still overwhelming mass. Through growing panic, their growling, grunting and fuming, I can barely focus.

We can't run anymore. We won't get out of the way.

We won't... but they might.

"CHILLY!" I scream and leave the white King's mind, "You've been with me since the beginning. Will you be by my side in the end?"

"Always," I feel a whisper inside my head followed by him nodding.

"Good," I take a deep breath, "KEEP RUNNING, TWILIGHT!" and...

...turn around.

The twenty strongest Corrupted I could bring with me sprout from the ground, forming a line against the herd.

We are the best! We are the powerful! We are-

The wall of black flesh is almost on us.

-so tiny.

Spikes of ice form a barricade in front of us, and we reinforce our armor as much as we can.

Alright, if we survive the crash we might somehow slow them down and make them focus on us. If they slow down and actually fight, we can win...

...if they don't just stomp us.

Seeing into their eyes, I realize they won't fight.

We aren't their enemy. To them, we aren't even there. They will keep stampeding through their ancient grounds over and over. They are a pure destructive instinct given form. There is no mind left to discern between friend and foe.

These are the buffalo, and we are just grass, waiting to be crushed.

The icy barricades shatter, doing nothing.

"Fu-"

I brace for impact.

A bloop in physics happens. I have no better words to describe it.

Is it warm?

Why isn't there any wind?

More importantly, why aren't I a smear on the ground?

I open my eyes.

A... library?

One by one, I reabsorb my Corrupted.

We are standing inside a library, or sitting, or collapsed on the floor in some cases. To each their own, I guess.

"An alicorn pocket dimension?" I hear Cromach gasp in awe, "Good job, your Highness. I had no idea you could use this power," the griffon chuckles, "Hmmm, looks like the hourglass tower in Canterlot."

"Heh, heheh," Twilight mumbles, apparently on the verge of collapse. Her horn is glowing such pure purple that it looks more like a hole into some reality of raw amethyst, "This... this used to be my... my old quarters when I lived in Canterlot... as a student."

"I remember Blaze saying he used to clean the place. He always said it was a library away from the main library."

"I used to... borrow... a lot... of books."

"How long?"

"A minute... two at most..." Twilight's legs give out and Knowledge catches her, "I've never... brought so many... with me."

Cromach takes charge.

"Alright, everypony, I'll give you the short version because we might appear in the middle of the buffalo herd soon. Alicorns can create their personal pocket dimensions either via magic or their divine power. It's natural to them and takes the form their unconscious wants. My old friend's world looked like the ruins of Manehattan, because he grew up there and he wasn't right in the head. Any quick questions?"

"This is so cool..." mumbles Bound Tome, lying on the tiled floor and bleeding out happily. Bastion licks his impaled leg and the wound closes, "Blrrbrl..."

Aaaand the mage is out.

"Not a question, but I agree," Cromach tries unsuccessfully to lighten the mood.

"I thought these things were stable parts of the world," Desert Shade looks up from Lyam panting heavily on the floor, "and needed a real entrance."

"These pockets need a connection to the real world, the Manehattan one I was talking about was connected via an old carpet rug," he rummages through his large bag and pulls out something ancient and so worn it looks like a grey cloth with barely visible symbol of the moon, "It, of course, doesn't work anymore, but it's a memento to me. I'm pretty sure the princess has a thing like that as well."

Twilight pats her bag weakly.

The reality wobbles.

"Time to go?" I ask.

"Yeah," Cromach nods, "Prepare for the worst."

Everything fades, and the bloop in existence happens again.

I'm dropped on the quaking ground one more time, and move even before the others recover from the teleportation or whatever it is that happened.

There is nothing outside of the black mass rapidly getting away and leaving a wide trail of crushed... everything.

Twilight collapses.

Knowledge tries to pick the bigger alicorn up, but even a well-grown unicorn like him can't prevent Twilight's hooves from dragging on the ground when on his back. Cromach waves at him, gives him his battleaxe, and takes Twilight himself where his greater size allows for her comfort.

"Hey, at least we don't have to trudge through the snow now," I grin, looking at the clear path leading in about the direction we wanted to go anyway.

"That's a really optimistic way of saying we almost died despite our predicted 'overpoweredness'," Desert Shade chuckles, and then bursts out into open laughter.

Lyam joins her, and soon all of us are laughing aside from the unconscious ones. It's the adrenaline telling us we are still alive.

I thought my hive was the pinnacle of the new world, but this showed me how little I know, how unknown the surface really is. What happened to minotaurs? What happened to the yaks? What effect did the corruption have on, well, everything living?

Who cares, I'm alive!

"WOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

They look at me jumping around like a maniac as if I was crazy.

Screw them, I'm the best Queen!

* * *

"So, welcome to the White Tail Woods," Twilight waves her hoof around.

"Very... distinct from every other forest," Desert Shade gives her a raised eyebrow.

I must agree with her. Considering how ominous this place was supposed to be, it looks exactly the same as every bloody patch of trees we've passed through.

"Fine," Twilight rolls her eyes in defeat, "According to my map it's the place. If we hurry, we should get within the sight of the barrier today."

"Umm," Lyam raises his talons, "Do we want to? I mean, some of us don't see well at night or don't have magic. Rushing into what's supposed to be the birthplace of Corrupted seems like a bad idea. Even breaking camp so close sounds... unsafe."

"I'm not planning on entering, if it's even possible to enter freely, tonight. We have to get closer, though, so we don't end up tomorrow with too little daylight anyway."

Heh, I was wondering when something would show up.

"We're being stalked," I announce, "Fifteen to twenty Corrupted led by a Queen. I don't sense any real power behind them, which makes no sense. If we are really getting closer to the right place then we should meet the powerful ones, right?"

Everypony tenses up, and weapons slide out of their resting places.

"Not necessarily," Twilight shakes her head, "I have been taking samples of tainted soil ever since we left Ponyville, and I haven't seen any abnormal amounts. Ponyville was still the most transformed place we've gone through."

"I'll take it as a compliment," I smile. Searching through the Corrupted still keeping their distance, I find the other Queen's mind, "Hmmm, give me a moment, everypony. I'll call them to us."

"With all due respect, why?" Lyam raises an eyebrow, "All packs and groups have been avoiding us like the plague until now. Why bring their attention to us now?"

"This is the first HIVE we're seeing, and it's much better to call them here when we're awake and ready rather than waiting for them to possibly gain some sort of advantage at night while all but two of us are asleep," I look around at everypony getting ready to fight, "Plus, I'm really curious what sort of wild hive we're dealing with here."

 _Come here, don't be shy..._

I sense the chaos inside the other Queen's mind as my request cuts clean through her defenses.

She is woefully weak. Mentally...

...and physically.

Two dozen skinny, visibly starving Hunters surround us. They are led by a Queen barely bigger than they are, prowling and salivating at the sight of us. Ribs poke through paper-thin skin of their chests, and some of them stumble as Cromach takes a shocked step forward to see these, no other words, poor wrecks up close.

"This is silly," I gasp as the Queen comes up to me and sniffs my neck, "We must be going to the wrong place. A trained squad of Hex Guards could take these on."

"Sooo, what now?" Twilight asks, watching the docile Corrupted poised to either jump or flee.

"Got some of the fake berries from Ponyville, or did we eat all of them?"

"We've got enough supplies, even if we have to feed the Corrupted you brought with you."

"Give me one. This Queen can't speak, so we'll extend a little... helping hoof first."

"Sure," she slowly opens her bag not to alert the watchers, and levitates a single grey berry to me. I, in turn, offer it to the scrawny creature before me.

Her eyes light up as she devours the little sphere. She turns her head to Twilight, her bag, to me...

...and screeches.

The Corrupted attack as one.

A jaw snaps an inch away from my neck, but that's about it. The Queen's limp body, impaled by barbed tentacles coming from my chest, is ripped in half even before I realize what I did on pure instinct.

Oh well, waste not, want not.

"Should we, I don't know, try to spare them, Nightshade?" Twilight asks, hidden behind a purple barrier being scratched against by the Hunters.

"Huh?" I rip the Queen's leg off her body, and with it still dripping in my mouth mumble, "Nah," and resume chewing.

With the assistance of my Corrupted, the cleanup takes less than two minutes.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry," I say to the patch of mushed black grass where what I didn't manage to eat in time melted into the ground, "but you know what? If I return from this road trip I'll do all I can to make sure we are not animals anymore. Not just around Ponyville, but everywhere."

"Anypony hurt?" Twilight asks, dropping her barrier. A quick succession of headshaking and hasty checking of various extremities reveals nothing major, although some of our less-durable members are exhausted.

Nopony complains, however, as Twilight resumes her walking through the snowy forest.

As we walk, darkness falls, but not before we get a clear glimpse of completely black, humming and shimmering surface in the distance, less and less covered by the thinning woods.

With the ground sloping down, we break camp on the highest point. As Cromach said, the site he was looking for is supposed to be in some sort of a sacrificial valley, and this fits the bill.

So... tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will see what stopped an alicorn princess and her best soldiers, what eliminated most of civilization of old Equestria, and what made me into what I am now.

Should I curse it, or thank it?


	34. The Origin: Golden Legion

We stand here, right beside the perfectly spherical shiny black surface of the Barrier supposedly covering a valley where our goal is, and wonder what to do next. There is no snow settling on it, no debris, and no change in the direction of wind blowing its way.

Twilight throws a rock which goes through with no resistance, not even a ripple on the seemingly liquid surface. In a matter of a true scientist, she levitates a fallen tree branch and pokes the Barrier. It goes in and out, no questions asked and no reactions caused.

"Hmmm..." Twilight stares at the stick in disappointment, and then throws it through. Very scientific.

I employ my brilliance and grow an eyeball on a long tentacle, slowly pushing it against the blackness. Nothing, as if my new eye was swimming in smoky ink.

"My scans indicate that this is a divine construction," Bucket announces, "I cannot discern any further information because of divinity working on a wish rather than by specific rules. My theory, though, based on zero reflection or no echo of my scanning methods is of a one-way portal."

"Portal where?" Desert Shade pokes the surface with a talon. Everypony is very scientific today.

"Considering the ease of disconnection after a brief contact, I don't believe it is a portal that would suck you in and teleport you far away. I think it just separates the valley inside it from the rest of the world, leaving anypony entering trapped there."

"Oh!" Twilight claps her hooves, "Easy!"

She levitates a bunch of pebbles, and her horn flashes briefly. The pebbles shake and form the shape of a small rock pony.

"Walk inside and then return back." she orders.

The little thing salutes and trots through the Barrier. After waiting for about two minutes, we come to the conclusion that this really is just a one-way trip.

"I think we should stay for few days and observe," Twilight concludes.

"And then what?" I wave my hooves, "We go home if we find out there really is no way back? We've already estabilished that it's not a spell that melts everything that touches it."

I'm getting a little shaky. I feel something inside my head, but can't put a claw on what it is. Deep down, I KNOW this isn't a trap made to just destroy anything curious enough to enter.

"Look, it's not as if another day here matters-"

"Yo, Twi!" I beam.

"Huh?"

I'm not turning back now that we've gone this far. Alone or not, I'm getting to the bottom of this.

"Catch me if you can!"

Jumping through, I feel the grip of her magic slide on my resistant scales. Good to know she actually values me enough to try to stop me from throwing myself in danger.

The first thing I feel after a complete sensory failure is snow and ground under my hooves, which means exactly the same thing as on the other side. The second thing is something clamping on my fetlock. I look down to see Twilight's tiny rock golem hugging my leg.

"That was ridiculously unwise- well fuck me backwards..." I hear Twilight's cursing followed by a gasp. Knowledge, appearing right beside her opens his mouth to comment on his mother's swear, follows her gaze upwards, and shuts up mid-breath.

"It's... it's exactly like last time..." Cromach whispers. Good, at least somepony has any freaking idea what's going on, because I sure as hay don't.

We are looking down into a valley the size of a small city. We are looking down, because looking up takes a toll on one's sanity. We are definitely not looking up.

Crap, we are, aren't we?

But hey, I'm crazy enough already, right?

It's daylight here, even under the dark purple sky. No snow is falling, only frozen tears accompanied by weeping on the edge of hearing falling from giant eyeballs dotting the vastness above.

Aaand that's enough eye contact, heh, I think.

Yes, the cold dots landing on my back are snowflakes. No, I don't care what my eyes and ears are telling me.

"Sooo, anypony still with me and not dribbling on the ground?" I ask, far too loudly and cheerfully.

"What... what is this?" I hear Lyam whimper, "Magic?"

"Oh no," Cromach takes his battleaxe from his back, and I hear growling sadism in his voice, "This is completely real. Harmony now knows we're here again. From now on, our steps are clearly visible for him. Maybe not even our minds are safe."

"So what do we do?" Twilight asks, still gathering herself.

"I am getting my long overdue revenge," the griffon snarls, and starts marching down the slope.

"Wait wait wait wait!" Twilight trots to him and puts a hoof on his back, Cromach just shakes it off, "Hey, we're in this together, sir Cromach, just don't be too rash."

"Twilight..." he huffs.

"I doubt Blazing Light would want to see you die the same way he did."

The griffon freezes. I hear him take a deep breath and sheathe his axe.

"We are stopping this," he says.

"First, we need to know what THIS is," Twilight nods to us, and we resume walking down.

I agree completely. While the creepy situation upwards is unsettling enough, the state of affairs down in the valley makes even less sense.

It is a siege.

On the bottom of the valley there lies a city, well - a large town more like. Nothing too big or too complex, but a full town with stone walls, sentry turrets, roads, and general infrastructure. In contrast to that image of civilization, the Corrupted inside are just like the wild ones, like animals trapped in an ornate cage. It reminds me of Canterlot in a way, where Corrupted just nested and lived in the crumbling houses of the supposedly once glorious city but without the wreckage. Where somepony would get enough raw materials in this secluded valley to build such a clean city with no sings of destruction is beyond me. In its center, there stands a pyramid with top cut off providing a platform offering clear view of the entire valley.

An exploratory look reveals there are two kinds of Corrupted down there.

The first kind are the city Corrupted. I try to reach out with my mind towards one, but am stopped by a will of magnitude I've never met before. No getting into one of those then. From what I can see, some are stationed on the walls, shooting spikes growing from them like porcupines. Some jump down, forced by the will inside them to stop the attackers climbing up the sheer walls. Those are immediately crushed to pieces by the sieging army. The strange thing is that there is no connection between the Corrupted lounging deeper inside the city and those called to defend its walls, as if those inside had no idea what was going on. Just like... just like the hollow golems the Breeder Queen in the Crystal Empire used, but these are real Corrupted, only wiped clean until called to service.

The attacking army are much more... equine-looking Corrupted. There is only several hundred of them in comparison to the thousands spawning in the city and dying in the fight, but they seem to be going equal with the defenders. The distinct thing is that they are using tools - swords, crossbows, spears. In the minutes we spend by going down, I see tactical maneuvers in action, strategy I learned in my time with the Hex Guard, traps and baits. An experimental mental touch of the 'soldier Corrupted' reminds me of many minds working like a well-oiled a machine. Very similar to the buffalo incident, but these are not driven by destruction, but efficiency. Both sides are dying and respawning in the endless grinder of blood and flesh.

About halfway down the slope, I sense a surge of will nearby, and, being on edge ever since we came here, pounce. My claws wrap around the handle of a halberd and I rip it from an appearing defender's grasp. My second swipe cleaves through armor, but doesn't cut deep enough.

I stop.

I sense confusion, I sense the need for retaliation, I sense fear from the new Corrupted sprouting from the ground and surrounding us, but not ill intent. Jumping away in case my instinct misled me, I reevaluate the situation and notice something. Corrupted usually come completely in shades of black, brown, and other dark colours aside from their eyes, and these guys are no different, but here and there, each one in a different place, these ones bear a little golden trimming - an earring here, a hair in their mane there, or even something completely different like a tail wrap.

They come closer, wary of me, and sniff the air.

Twilight is staring, eyes wide, at the armor replicas the Corrupted are wearing. Chilly is furrowing his brows as if trying to remember something long gone. Bastion, though, walks over to the closest Corrupted, stands up straight...

...and salutes.

In return, they all stomp the ground, raise their muzzles, and return the gesture.

"The Golden Legion..." Twilight whispers and her ears perk up, "Celestia...?" she shakes her head, "Let's follow them!"

"Chilly?" I look at the white King who is staring with his mouth agape.

"I used to know some of them... no, all of them," he answers, "I don't know who they are, but I know I knew them. That's all, sorry."

I don't need to hear anything else to follow Twilight without hesitation.

The sieging legion, in a matter befitting a coordinated group rather than Corrupted, is spread around the city, surrounding it for some reason. Not like the city Corrupted are attempting to leave or anything anyway. While escorted in a fasion very similar to the Hex Guard practices, I spot three groups of tents which have to either be command posts, field hospitals, or supply warehouses.

None of those make sense. Corrupted don't need intensive care, mouth-to-mouth relaying of orders, or weapons. This all feels like a shattered memory of what these Corrupted used to be ages ago.

The largest command post comes to view, and with it a Corrupted who gives me a fantastic idea how to transform my body further. She is staring, motionless, at the bloodbath under the city walls, but I can feel crushing mental pressure coming from her. She is a Corrupted alicorn, tall, completely black, with eyes burning like roaring pyre. Even in comparison to me or her well-built soldiers, she is massive, a... a tainted demigod. She is the first Corrupted with a cutie mark - an orange sun. Even just the power of her mark bearing the colour of boiling magma makes the air warmer as we approach.

Considering Twilight's astonished walk of a doll led by strings, I have little to no doubt that this creature, in some shape or form, is, or was, the alicorn called Celestia, the fake Queen.

Cautious more than ever before, I touch the alicorn mind ahead. It is powerful, but... incoherent. Overwhelmingly pressuring but weak at the same time, all power with no control.

Hmmm...

"Princess Celestia?" Twilight stops in front of the alicorn who looks at her as she asks in a soft and shaky voice.

"No," I walk over, rather less captivated, "This is... an amalgamation of minds of the entire legion. Every single one of them is the entire legion. They have a purpose here, and that's what they are, just a living purpose. There are no individual ponies present."

As I make another quick attempt of reaching into the cracks of the derelict remnants of minds of the Golden Legion, I blank out.

Floating in a complete darkness, I hear a calm, self-assured voice:

 **"So, you are finally within my reach."**

Each word runs a burning spike into my brain. With each echo of the voice here in the eternal darkness my mental armor breaks a little.

 **"Did you think your actions would escape me?"**

My body shivers. I can't move.

Get a grip, Nightshade! You are the best Queen. You didn't run away, cut yourself off like Spring, and you didn't go crazy... too much. You held your own against-

 **"Against me. Very impressive for a lesser being. Even I must admit you indeed are the best Queen."**

Ehh, what? He can literally read my mind?

 **"Of course. There are so few real minds among these misguided creatures that one like yours is easy to make sense of. However, you should realize what you are."**

"Which is...?" I grunt, mostly trying to just reassure myself that I still exist and that I am more than just a reverberation of those words, of the all-encompassing mind currently focusing all its attention on me.

On so tiny me.

 **"My extension!"**

My front legs move to my neck which loses all its natural armor and turns back to soft pony skin and coat. Two sets of claws wrap around it despite all my willpower, not even slowed a little. They grip, crush, choke...

...and stop.

"Grrgh!" I gasp for air.

 **"Now that we made this little issue clear, I called you here to make you an offer."**

The voice now sounds as if carressing my entire body, licking it from inside out.

"Offer?" I moan.

 **"Indeed. You are as close to a perfect being as I have ever gotten. Not as you are now, definitely not, but you have true potential reaching beyond any other creature in existence. Besides me, of course. I want to explore it. I made others with more power, better senses, and resistant bodies, but they lost their mind and purpose. You, on the other tentacle, have maintained your intelligence throughout your change and you have still not reached your peak."**

Huh... I AM awesome then. If a disembodied godly voice says so.

 **"I am Harmony, and you shall be my avatar. I will show you how to improve even more. You will lead all those you call Corrupted under unified mind. You will spread all over this world, and as we conquer it... we will reach out to the stars. You will have anything and everything in your grasp. Pain, ecstasy, loyalty, suffering. You will be able to choose what you want to live through or inflict upon newer and newer foes in heights never experienced before."**

Uhhh, that sounds way too shifty and cult-y. How about I just-

 **"You misunderstood me. The offer was not whether you do it for me or not. The offer was only whether you keep a little of your free will while doing so."**

With my newfound power, I rip alicorn Celestia in half and spawn dozens Corrupted instantly to obliterate the petty Golden Legion. Spitting boiling acid, I melt Twilight's legs off and hang her under my belly to be my trophy endlessly assaulted by my tentacles in every orifice as I walk through lands which belong only to me now. The divine griffon Cromach falls under my onslaught much to the laughter of my master. Before turning Twilight to a simple flesh pleasure hole, I grind her brain for information about improving Corrupted to traverse seas. We spread. It starts with griffons, then Saddle Arabia, Zebrica, and in the end the world falls under the black plague. But that is only the beginning. More planets, lifeforms in shapes I couldn't even imagine before fall before me. Civilizations crumble, turned into pleasure pits of Corrupted. In the end, only two beings remain - my master and I.

And then we join in complete and absolute unity.

"AAAAH!" I scream, waking up wrapped by a set of legs and struggling to break free in horror, "Letmegoletmegoletmegoletmego!"

"Shhh," I hear Chilly whisper in my ear, "I'm here. It's fine."

Trembling all over, I whimper and gradually cease struggling. I'm sitting on the ground in front of everypony while Chilly's embrace is keeping me from collapsing completely.

"What's going on?" Twilight trots over, "You just collapsed out of nowhere and Chilly caught you."

"It talked to me. The god talked to me. It wants me," I mumble quickly.

"What? Harmony? So were we right about this?" Twilight starts saying something, but I ignore her.

I ignore her because another female voice speaks, raspy and weak, but audible.

"Frostbite?"

Seeing me being hugged by Chilly must have sparked something in the ancient alicorn.

Chilly twitches and looks up at Celestia. She sounds exactly like he did when speaking for the first time in a century, only softer.

"Tia?" he smiles.

So, Chilly's protective presence works even against the god itself. My head hurts like blazes, but at least there is still a 'me' to realize it.

"Princess?" Twilight, seeing I'm recovering under Chilly's protection, turns back to Celestia.

"Twi- Twilight?" the alicorn leans back, "What? How? TWILIGHT!"

The smaller purple alicorn is wrapped in tentacles and mashed against Celestia's chest. Twilight wraps her wings around her mentor.

"It's been so long, princess, so long."

"Long?" Celestia looks taken aback by Twilight's vice-like embrace, "Didn't we... I... can't remember... a month at most? How are things outside? Did my message get to you? Is Canterlot holding?"

Twilight lets go, biting her lip as she looks Celestia in her orange, tainted eyes.

"It has been a century since you left. Most of Equestria is gone, devoured by Corrupted. As far as we know, only Ponyville, Manehattan, Canterlot, and the Crystal Empire are still standing."

I can feel she shock spread from Celestia through the collective mind of the entire legion.

"We... we did... nothing?" Celestia whispers, "But my journal-"

"It got to us only few months ago. I'm sorry, but your plan failed completely. We lost everything even before Bastion got to Canterlot, I think. I don't know how or when he got to Canterlot anyway, but I suppose it happened after the city fell, because no Corrupted or even tainted ponies were allowed in when the spread began."

Molten tears start treaking down Celestia's face.

"My little ponies...?"

Twilight shakes her head.

"There is very few of us left, but we are recovering," Twilight smiles and points at me, "Mostly thanks to her."

"A Corrupted Queen?" Celestia gives me a distinctly hostile glare.

On the other hoof, if even she can't recognize the pony in me then this is what I really am now. Well, who cares WHAT I am? I am WHO I am!

"My name is Nightshade," I push Chilly away and grit my teeth as the headache grows, "An ex-Hex Guard alchemist and also an ex-pony. I lead the Ponyville hive and I know more about Corrupted than you ever will. WE ARE NOT ANIMALS, WE ARE NOT TOOLS, AND WE-"

I'm not sure where the rage came from, but it burns brightly. Just her stare, the dismissive look of somepony with no real understanding believing they know everything makes me boil.

"Wrong," Celestia interrupts, "Tools are exactly what you ar-oof!"

And here it is. Now I can say I punched a Corrupted alicorn so hard her jaw shattered.

My Corrupted rise from the ground and surround me, blocking the incoming tainted legionnaires.

Celestia, more shocked than hurt, regenerates her muzzle in an instant and growls at me.

Thunder roars above us, and I smell ozone followed by the crackling sound of electricity next to me.

"ENOUGH!" one extremely pissed off alicorn of Magic makes both me and Celestia take a step back. The legionnaires freeze and Twilight stares Celestia down, "I believe you still harbor some misconceptions from a century ago, but let me tell you one thing. Times have changed. Corrupted are a threat, an enemy unlike anything ever encountered before, BUT they are a new species. No matter why or how they were created, if or when they regain their free will they WILL BE TREATED AS SUCH! I'm not sure how much my word means to you after all this time, your Highness, but I trust Nightshade one hundred percent. Without her, we wouldn't have gotten here, probably ever. Without her, the last remaining ponies would only be griffon... cattle. And without her I would still be thinking about Corrupted the wrong way in my final days."

Well, I'm blushing now.

"To my knowledge," Celestia starts again carefully, "The Corrupted are a plague released on this world to eradicate ponies."

Ehm, yes, buuuut-

No, that's not going to work.

"I have witnessed Corrupted regaining control over themselves when the influence warping their minds was cut off. Chilly here might tell you more when we have the time."

"Chilly?" Celestia looks at the white King.

"Frostbite, Tia," he gives her a small bow, "but that was a unicorn's name. I go by Chilly these days. And if you still value my opinion, I would advise you to listen to Twilight Sparkle and Nightshade. The situation is dire and, since we don't seem to be able to get out, we are in this together. You can remnisce or get to know today's world later."

"A very wise advice," Cromach coughs. Celestia blinks several times, and then makes a guilty face similar to Twilight whenever she talks to the griffon. What did they do to him? Was it something with the high treason Cromach was talking about? "Your Highness, we will enlighten you about the outside world later, but now we need to know what is going on here. Why is there a city full of Corrupted? Why are there structures similar to what Harmony used to return to Equus the last time inside? Is the god around, or is this all na accident fueled by enraged divine will?"

"A century..." Celestia shakes her head, "No days, no nights... just eyeballs. I am so exhausted..."

"We are here to help, although that part should be obvious. Bucket!" Cromach turns to the robot, "Run through the ranks of the Legion and scan everypony and everything you can find. I need an objective evaluation of the situation. I'll fill you in on the history princess is about to tell us when you're done."

Bucket nods and runs off.

"Oh, history... oh right," Celestia catches on, "Let's sit down here. It's not like we need or can have any sort of privacy anyway."

Celestia looks at everypony offloading their bags and sitting down in a circle around her. She waves her hoof in a motion encompassing the entire city under siege.

"This was already here when we arrived. At first we had the upper hoof, though, but we still couldn't break through. The one time we broke the wall these two strange ponies, not Corrupted, completely obliterated us. The Corrupted managed to rebuild the breach while we had to recover. To not let up on the pressure I had to tap into the 'fake' corruption we managed to control and twist my soldiers more and more. Now... now there is little to nothing of them left, only the drive of serving me to the end. Even if we somehow manage to get out of here, they are all gone. I am worn out beyond my own expectations. The only reason you managed to pull me out of the tangled mess of remains of will and minds is likely my divine power still holding my 'shape'."

"We will get you back, princess, even if it might not be possible for the others," Twilight reassures her firmly.

Celestia gives her a warm smile.

"Your coming has given me a little hope, even if your words about the world outside quenched most of it. I think I can muster some more energy for the final push. How about that?"

"We'll do all we can, prin- Celestia," Twilight nods.

"Let's wait for Bucket to get back," Cromach interrupts, "Even Harmony cannot use divine power without limits, especially after the defeat he suffered last time. This place must have a structural weakness, and if there is somepony who can discover it then it's Bucket. For now, I would ask you to call off the assault."

"What?" Celestia and Twilight both look at the griffon in clear surprise.

"You need rest, what little remains of your soldiers need rest too. Harmony's power and the ability to replenish lost Corrupted is doubtlessly far beyond your own. From my experience, the god likes to play games and show you he is in charge. The only two reasons you haven't been crushed under the onslaught must be the damage Blaze, I, and the Silver Sun members caused last time, and the god's desire to just see you wear yourself out and admit defeat."

"What do you recommend then?"

"Give Bucket an hour to do his thing, recall your soldiers and try to recover as many autonomous minds as you can because you're going to need thinkers, not animals operating purely on instinct or combat training. You should let Nightshade help you with that. I can see you don't trust her no matter Twilight's reassurance, but she knows what she is doing."

"That is what I'm afraid of," Celestia's eyes narrow as she looks at me.

"We will not get anywhere like this, princess," Cromach sighs, "Much like Ponyville ponies when Nightshade came to power, you don't have much choice. You will either lose alone eventually but surely, or you will gamble everything on a little glimmer of hope," the griffon grinds his beak and his stare grows cold, "The Hope you killed two centuries ago."

"Cromach!" Twilight frowns.

"It is alright, Twilight. I admit my fault. My lack of trust in the griffon, his alicorn lover, and the others who risked their lives against impossible odds caused this. Harmony would have not returned if I trusted them, Corrupted would not exist if I trusted them, and I think I would not have gone alone only with my soldiers on this mission if I wasn't burdened by guilt. I caused this and deep down I thought it was up to me to correct my mistake. I failed everypony including myself."

"Princess..."

"But all of you are here, and together we might have enough strength for one final push. I will recall my soldiers for now. I will tell you all I know about the Corrupted city, which isn't much to be honest. And together we WILL finish what those long dead sacrificed themselves to start."


	35. The Origin - End: Free Will

Celestia starts pacing over a small dias where we are sitting.

"From what we gathered, the situation is as follows - we have traced... Harmony's influence to the top of the reconstructed sacrificial pyramid. I am not sure what the exact method is, but there must be something up there controlling the Corrupted and allowing the god to directly influence the world."

"I noticed four pillars similar to the ones that were here last time, but the sky isn't torn apart and full of tentacles," Cromach comments, "The guiding crystals atop them looked different as well."

I look up at the purple field of crying eyeballs above. Yeah, ripped in half might be better.

"All this was already here when we first came. If it's really been a century then the pillars must not be working," Celestia shrugs.

"Perhaps Corrupted just don't have the mental capabilities and local resources to construct both the pillars and the focusing crystals on top properly."

"That's quite likely," Twilight joins in, "I remember taking a bunch of notes after the incident and the crystals which were not destroyed completely looked extremely specific. Whoever created them last time had knowledge of magic I don't have even now."

"We should find a way to destroy them just in case. A great part of Harmony's power is still locked in the void outside of this world. We cannot let that part return using these beacons for guidance," Cromach says firmly.

"First things first," Celestia raises her hoof, "The pillars, the pyramid, all those are secondary to getting inside the city first."

A shower of dirt splatters the dark ground as Bucket, returning from his surveying trip, turns his gallop into a full stop in an instant.

"I have perfomed depth scans of the area and I've got good news," the silvery robot announces, "There is a wide network of underground caves underneath the city, likely from mining operations. Air shafts should still be accessible with just minor digging. It also seems like the mining operations have completely stopped, since I could find no signs of life underneath the city. The bad news is that, even if I account for my limited knowledge of Corrupted regeneration and life cycle, the amount of Corrupted inside the city is insurmountable."

"Can we transport all my soldiers down without being noticed?" Celestia asks skeptically.

"I very much doubt that," Bucket shakes his head, "The main mine entrance is near the pyramid itself and the exit must be guarded in some way. However, since the space for possible fight will be limited, our small group might make it to the exit and hold it without being surrounded and overwhelmed. With the enemy forces focusing on us, you might be finally able to break through the city walls."

"That's a lot of 'should' and 'if'," Desert Shade frowns, "How about we stay here for few days and observe a little more?"

"With each second we are giving Harmony time to analyze our capabilites just like we are observing the city," Cromach shakes his head, "Plus, the princess has been here for a while and has not managed to get more information. Bucket, would more scans be useful?"

"Not immensely. I would get a better idea about the layout of this place, but nothing major. We can easily work just as well with what I gathered now."

"Alright then, get ready to move out."

"We still have to dig through the air vents, don't we?" Desert Shade returns to the details.

"Not necessarily," I join in for the first time, "Chilly, I, my 'bodyguards', and Bastion can teleport through the ground. We are the best combat force we have anyway so us being the distraction should work just fine. The rest of you can go in with... the legion."

"That won't be a problem," I hear a voice almost scared of being heard, Bound Tome, "With my, erm, handicap," he taps his black, tainted horn, "I started working on some mixture of real magic and Corrupted abilities. ONLY ON MY FREE TIME, I PROMISE!" he sqeaks when Twilight gives him a curious stare, "Umm, I think I can transport even normal ponies through tainted soil. I tried it in Canterlot and it worked fine. All I need is for you to lead me above the mine shaft and tell me how deep down it is."

"I support going in as soon as possible to retain what little surprise we might still have," Twilight supports Cromach's plan, "The thing is that I have to stay up here with the legion. Whatever the scale of the distraction may be, the city walls will hold just like they did until now unless I help with some serious sieging potential. Down there, you are on your own until we get in."

"Alright," the griffon nods, "One final recap - you start the siege first, we teleport to the mines, we pull some Corrupted towards us to the mine entrance, you sweep the city and destroy the guiding pillars, we go to the pyramid and deal with whatever is there. If you're done with the pillars first, come help us or at least keep Corrupted away from us."

Celestia and Twilight nod. Cromach turns to Bucket.

"Lead the way to the nearest shaft."

We follow the robot to an unremarkable stretch of ground where he stops.

"The shaft's floor is thirty point three average pony heights underneath us. The tunnel is six point one ponies high and seven point two ponies wide."

I can see the gears in Bound Tome's head grinding as he works through the math. Thankfully, I can feel the soil around well enough not to have to bother with such details like, well, details.

"Chilly, Bastion, let's roll!"

A moment later my body drips down from the ceiling of the shaft and reforms into the Protector Queen I know and love. A localized snowstorm appears a second later and turns to Chilly.

"Showoff," I mutter.

"I aim to please," he ruffles my mane.

A black bubble almost the radius of the entire tunnel's width dribbles down and pops, revealing the rest of our group including Bastion frowning at me, somehow smugly, and Bound Tome gasping for breath.

Fine, I won't try to order the big guy around anymore.

Click, click.

Soft light spreads and lights the uneven tunnel. Desert Shade and Lyam are holding small electric lanterns and looking around.

"You know, I've seen my share of mines, but..." the blonde-maned hippogriff cringes as she moves closer to the tunnel wall.

"Never seen a mine literally chewed and clawed out of the bedrock... yeah," Lyam nods, voice growing distant.

Someone, something made Corrupted die in thousands to hew the stones with their transformed bodies, without any tools.

"Because we are the tools..." I mumble, "We are not important."

"What was that?" Desert Shade asks.

"Nothing, we have some seriously crazy fucker to stop," I growl.

"You have no idea how right you are," Cromach grabs a point flashlight and waves at us to follow, "The insane god himself."

"Yeah, about that," Desert Shade guards the back of our group, "How do we even kill a god... or what are we doing in case we meet it... him?"

"Harmony is not here in his full power, otherwise we wouldn't be here anymore, any by 'we' I mean any living creatures. That's why there is this city and the Corrupted, all that is a plan which is somehow controlled from the top of the pyramid. I think there must be a conduit allowing Harmony to influence the world like this there. We destroy it, we buy all mortal races time."

"Umm, but then the god will be back eventually, right?"

"Yes."

"Crap."

Why did we allow her and Lyam to tag along? I mean, Lyam is hot and does what he's told, but she's weird and, unfortunately, smart. They probably get along really well.

Right, because they have the most experience with outdoor survival. Pony-style, of course.

Anyway, the good thing is that I can't sense any Corrupted within the mines which means we should have a clear path to the exit.

"So, how much time before we have to fight?" I ask.

"Ten minutes at most, fifteen if we slow down to let Bound Tome catch his breath," Bucket shares his estimate.

With that, we lower our pace to accommodate for our exhausted wizard. Still boiling inside about the entire "Corrupted are expendable things" idea this entire mine relays so well, I keep my mind scouring the vicinity for any kind of surprise. Shockingly, we seem to have been... unnoticed?

As predicted, we soon reach a conflux of mining shafts - a massive cavern with a wide exit leading outside. Sadly Bucket's idea that we might be able to hold a horde of Corrupted off was rather optimistic. They won't be able to surround us easily, but we won't hold such a wide area if they decide to just push through no matter their health.

"They know about us," I say as I sense a mass of minds just outside of the mine, "For some reason they don't want to fight in here even with having a ridiculous numbers advantage."

"Perhaps they know what we can do if they clump up," Bound Tome's horn glimmers as he takes a deep breath.

I nod, but that doesn't feel like the whole story. It looks like our hostile god isn't as all-knowing as we assumed.

"That, or they didn't notice us early enough to set up a trap."

"This can still be a trap we aren't seeing," Cromach hisses, "Never underestimate an enemy you don't know."

I summon my twenty Corrupted bodyguards. Each of them could hold their own against a group of the wild Corrupted out there, but there are still limits. Well, we will see how the experience of them training with Hex Guards serves them in this engagement.

"Form a line spread all over the entrance," Cromach orders, "Tome in the back, Des and Lyam keep him safe in case we have to scatter. The rest of us in front of them. If they group up to push through, blast the taint out of them. If worst comes to worst, we retreat to the tunel we came through so that they have even less space to attack."

Everypony obeys the griffon.

"Bound Tome, if you please," Cromach grins, "Alert the enemies that we're here."

A black ball of goo forms in front of the wizard and shoots out of the exit into the mass of Corrupted. It splatters and turns to vapor burning the clumped foes. I feel the chaos in their heads as an answer, at least until an iron will forces them all to charge at once.

Vaulting over the first charger, a bulky Protector taller than I am, and landing on his back, I spawn a thin wire between my front hooves and cut his head cleanly off. Using the height advantage, my tail wraps around a nearby Hunter's neck and slams him into another one so hard bones of them both crack. With the next Hunter pouncing at me, I drop all pretense of style and just bite his head off.

Tasty.

Well, the others can hold the line well enough with Chilly slowing the enemies down and impaling them with icicles. I work better alone, drawing as much attention to myself as possible.

I get flung backwards mid-jump.

"Whuh?"

There's a thick, barbed spike impaling my neck. The bastards brought the shooting porcupine Hunters from the walls. That might mean Twilight and Celestia have broken through already. No time for that.

A swipe of talons tosses me aside as I wrestle with the tainted bone impaling me. Liquifying the front of my body like a Corruptor, I pull it out just to have wind knocked out of me. Bad idea, weakening my armor like that. I'm grabbed by another Protector by a leg and slammed over and over into the ground.

A spiked hoof approaches my face too fast for me to react.

A burst of bright energy derails the possible killing blow, giving me time to jump back up and fortify myself.

Knowledge is levitating a giant sword still smoking from the focused magic the unicorn has just used. No idea why he still has his horn in the middle of a horde of Corrupted, but my best guess is that the will controlling them fully is not really focused at the moment. He swings the blade in a wide, crackling arc, leaving a bright trail in the air to make a little space for me to recover.

"Thanks!" I smile shake my head.

"You're more important than anypony else here!" he groans under the strain of blocking a Hunter's swipe at him.

And here was I thinking he didn't like me. Wait... did he fight his way this far just to get to me?

A quick survey of the situation reveals all my Corrupted are still alive, fighting in pairs back to back. Red beam flashes in the corner of my eye and cleaves a clean path in the ranks of enemies stopping in shock to see why their bodies are suddenly splitting in two. Lyam is smacking a Hunter held by black tentacles serving as a substitute for Bound Tome's levitation with his shield while Desert Shade drives her rapier through his eye into his brain. The girl has some serious skill.

That's all I gather in one quick turn of my head before I have to rip the head off of an attacking Hunter.

"Grrgh!" I hear Knowledge's groan followed by a 'thud'.

Spinning my body one-eighty while coiling like a spring, I buck with my hind legs now facing another attacker. The cracking of a broken neck is always a good sign. Unfortunately, Knowledge is gurgling on the ground, blood flowing from his mouth and neck speared through by another barbed projectile.

Damn, I shouldn't have split from the group. Twilight will freaking kill me!

Alright, plan C.

Twilight might just mutilate me if she finds out her second son got turned into a Corrupted to survive.

Flailing my tail like a bladed whip to give me a precious second, I lower my mouth to Knowledge's and bury my tongues into his neck. Slathering the wound with my saliva from the inside, I rip the spike from his neck and watch the taint take hold as his white coat grows dim and black veins spread from his new breathing hole.

Alright, now to keep him alive while he's recovering as one of my own. On the other hoof, a second Corrupted like Mana Burn is always a boost.

Applying every trick, transformation, and physical boost to keep Corrupted away from twitching and darkening Knowledge, I lose track of anything other than the endless horde of attackers and the barely breathing body I'm protecting.

A little spark on the edge of my mind snaps me from combat trance and I feel a presence rising next to me.

"My mother will kill you," I hear Knowledge's voice just as a taint-reinforced greatsword slices through a Protector's torso.

"Hey, at least Mana Burn won't be the black sheep at family gatherings," I grin, breathing a little lighter.

"Hmph," Knowledge chuckles, "Thought I'd lose my telekinesis as well as magic. Or get weird unreal tentacles like Bound Tome."

"Works on," I dodge several swipes at once with a roll to the side, "individual basis... somewhat."

"KNOWLEDGE!" I hear a scream and realize the tide of the attackers is all but gone.

"What... happened?" I blink away the blurriness in my eyes, "How long?"

Through the gradually fading haze of battle I slowly realize that the Corrupted around are Celestia's legion, and that the shocked yell was Twilight's. Speaking of the princess, she's patting and poking Knowledge all over.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, mom."

"You look a little frayed. I put a tracking spell on you so I could find you."

"I'm fine, mom."

The alicorn pinches Knowledge's cheeks, but her watering eyes are on the still not completely closed neck wound. The fatal neck wound. Fatal to a pony.

"You didn't get hurt too badly?"

"I'm fine, m-"

Twilight, sobbing, hugs the unicorn.

"If I lost you, I don't know what-"

Biting my lip, I stop listening and return to my group. Everyone is gasping for breath and dripping a river's worth of sweat. Watching their exhausted attempts to stand up is still less painful than thinking about the royal family I messed up that much. Yes, I DID save both Twilight's sons, but I also caused them to be in danger in the first place.

"Cromach?" I watch the drenched griffon shake dark blood off of his battleaxe, "What now? I can feel the panic inside Corrupted around. The mind herding them is having trouble controlling this much disarray so we should have a minute or two to rest."

He shakes his head.

"If we have time then we need to use it," he takes a deep breath, "EVERYPONY! We can't stop here. The chaos we caused will soon be over. We absolutely MUST get to the pyramid!"

I dismiss my Corrupted, allowing them to regenerate faster back inside me. I wonder if that's how a griffon airship carrier feels.

It seems that everypony gets the idea that this is just a moment of respite we can't squander.

Twilight and Knowledge walk over to me, the alicorn giving me an unreadable stare. I doubt even she herself has any idea whether to be pissed off or ecstatic.

"We'll be taking care of the guiding pillars now," says Twilight, "When we're done we'll meet you at the pyramid. If you find anything you can't handle," she looks me in the eyes, "please don't rush at it head on for once."

I wish I could promise you that, Twilight, but if I don't use my power to protect everyone and take blows for them, they will die.

"I'll do what I can," is all I answer.

"Let's go," Cromach waves his talons and we rush through semi-empty streets of the city towards its center.

I sense Corrupted milling around, but they are hiding inside buildings or in alleys, unsure what's going on or what to do. The confusion eventually subsides, and the general consensus of the hivemind is to go stop Celestia's legion. That means we are left to roam free.

Two things come to mind. Either where we are going is not important, or it is guarded by something sure to stop us.

The latter might be the case because as we enter an almost empty square with the flat-tipped pyramid in its center, Cromach freezes, cold sweat forming on his back.

Two figures, ponies, are standing still at the wide staircase leading up the pyramid's side, calmly watching us. Strangely enough, while their coat and mane colours are dim, they still are not the dark tones of Corrupted. One is green and the other grey, both with completely unremarkable brown manes.

"You lesser creatures are making this way too easy," they both say at once.

"Vigils," Cromach growls, "I thought we destroyed all of you."

"We survived, we adapted, we grew."

Their speaking as one entity is unsettling.

"And now you die!" Cromach jumps towards one and swings his axe. The attack is dodged, and the defending Vigil turns his front leg into a tentacle which effortlessly swats Cromach away.

These bastards are FAST.

"Such impatience, griffon," the Vigils smile in unison, "But our master has different plans."

Something on the top of the pyramid glows dark purple and it mirrors around the raised leg of one Vigil. Cromach is levitated upwards and...

... a bolt of lightning from the sky strikes the Vigil. Cromach drops on three legs, axe at the ready again.

"My divine power is mine only, don't try to steal it, you abominations!"

The Vigil shakes the lightning strike off and looks at the rest of us still trying to get a grip on the situation. We really should help.

"Well, it's not as if you are the only choice, griffon. This little 'accident' will be sufficient as well."

Vigil raises his leg again and Desert Shade flies in the air, purple sparks being ripped out of her body and flowing up the pyramid stairs to the top.

Lyam charges the spellcasting Vigil, ready to bash his face with his shield. Desert Shade's unconscious, I hope, body is flung at him and sends him down on the cobblestones.

The glow fades, and I see something rise up on the flat platform forming the pyramid's top. A mental touch reveals absolutely nothing, as if I was met with a steel wall. With the Vigils not attempting to fight us, we wait for the pony silhouette to come down the pyramid stairs.

The silhouette turns into an dim brown alicorn with light grey mane. Come to think of it, he looks like a little statuette I saw Cromach unpack and pack from his bag each evening, only very faded in colours.

"What have you done?" Cromach asks, absolute detached shock in his voice, as he watches the alicorn jerkily descending, but gaining more and more control over its limbs with each step downwards.

The alicorn speaks with the voice I recognize from my vision of absolute power.

 **"Surprised I would build my new body based on the one who defeated me in my real form? It is by far not complete, but the divinity inside the hippogriff girl was enough for the next step which is draining you, griffon!"**

"You will pay for desecrating Blaze's memory like this," I can feel Cromach losing control, see him shake all over with barely contained rage.

 **"I am a benevolent god if you choose to serve me, and I have learned from my past mistakes as well. If you remove this minor threat,"** the alicorn points his hoof at us, namely me, **"I will leave this body and make it pliant and obedient. If you so desire, you will be able to reconstruct your lover... eventually. However, if you refuse you will die by his-"**

The alicorn jumps away as Cromach moves faster than even I can react and his axe cleaves the air, leaving a trail of lightning in its wake.

With the two Vigils' first steps to join the fight, we all know time for talking is over. I resummon my Corrupted with the order to guard the perimeter and stop any reinforcements from coming.

I pounce at one Vigil. He moves blindingly fast, stands on his hind legs, grabs my front leg and my neck, and rips.

Crunch.

What?

I watch my front leg fly away, thrown into the distance by the Vigil. His now free claws bury into my chest, tearing my reinforced plating away from my flesh. With my soft skin revealed, he cocks his leg back to punch...

...only to be stopped by a hailstorm of icicles shattering against his coat.

I drop on the ground and fly a little way away as he kicks me in one swift motion.

Chilly and Knowledge occupy the Vigil's attention while I muster all my strength to recover as fast as possible.

Knowledge's sword clanks as it harmlessly bounces off of the Vigil's skin, magic crackling around it. Chilly's blows have little to no effect as well aside from tossing the Vigil around. Good to know endurance doesn't equate to mass. Chilly realizes this as well, creating a slick pool of ice behind the Vigil and kicking him. Completely unhurt, the Vigil slides away before burying the claws on his front legs into the stone with no resistance.

Aaand we're ready to go back to action. My armor is restored and my leg, with joints still aching, has regrown.

As the Vigil returns to toying with Knowlege and Chilly, I sneak close, trip the bastard up, and spear his brain through his eyesocket with my tail.

He grabs it, yanks it out, cracks it like a whip with me on its end, and slams me on the ground.

"I am indestructible!" he rears, eye recovering instantly. As if nothing happened, his leg lenghtens into a tentacle again which sweeps all four Knowledge's legs off the ground.

Well, after seeing this, I don't think he's lying.

So, pain doesn't make him flinch. Magic can't get through his skin.

Chilly conjures a snowstorm localized around the Vigil, blinding and deafening him, pounces behind him...

...and recieves a hoof to the face.

Aaaand they don't rely on traditional senses. There must be something to do, something only a Corrupted like me could do.

Heh, what are Corrupted best at besides ripping and tearing?

"Chilly, freeze him!" I yell.

"Doesn't work!" he answers as his horn flickers only to make the Vigil's coat shimmer ineffectively.

"Just immobilize his legs! Leave his body exposed!"

"Knowledge, go for the face!" Chilly orders, "Try not to die!"

"Futile, you pests," the Vigil, on his hind legs, blocks Knowledge's flying sword with his crossed front legs.

Chilly grabs him from behind, wrapping his front legs around the Vigil's and hind legs around his lower body...

"FEW SECONDS!" he groans under the strain of the struggling definitely-not-a-pony-anymore.

...and freezes himself into a block of ice with the enemy.

I immediately jump to the Vigil's unprotected belly.

"I might not be able to cause you pain, you little bastard, but how about some... pleasure?" I press my muzzle against his sheath and put my tongues to work.

Stallions are always the same.

His stallion meat spill out of his sheath, filling my mouth. Underneath the onslaught of my licking tongues and sucking muzzle, I sense the Vigil's mental fortitude weaken and crumble. When I can finally insert my will inside his head, I conjure up images of mating Corrupted, ponies screaming in ecstasy, orgies, and even simple lovemaking of couples just for the sake of completion.

The lightning rush of him close to finishing makes me slow down. I need every second Chilly can give me so I can make it better for the Vigil.

The ice imprisoning the duo starts cracking. Suck, Nightshade! Suck like an industrial pump!

I stop delaying the Vigil's finish. No more teasing and edging, just... burst. With his nerves lighting on fire, I make his mind very receptive to the incoming pleasure.

The overloaded Vigil sits on his haunches as Chilly drops down, collapsing into an exhausted pile. He stares at me, unseeing and drooling. He is completely mine, his head is blank and empty. With a simple command, his body turns into that of a normal pony.

I end his long, long life by a quick decapitation with my tail.

"Knowledge, take care of Chilly!"

He nods and starts guarding the unconscious King. Immediately and without my command, one of my Corrupted spawns nearby and joins Knowledge. They ARE growing smarter.

I grin.

Chilly and Desert Shade are out then, Lyam and Knowledge are making sure no random Corrupted finishes them off.

Time to use my newfound deadly blowjob powers on the second Vigil currently fighting Bastion, Bound Tome, and Bucket.

Their fight looks less one-sided than ours. Bastion's sheer strength rivals the Vigil's and his blows toss the pony around much easier than Chilly's did. Bucket is mostly just baiting the Vigil's attacks, dodging them with shocking ease. Bound Tome is randomly summoning tentacles, slapping the Vigil with little to no effect.

"Nightshade to the rescue!" I pounce at the Vigil busy with repeatedly missing Bucket.

The Vigil starts flailing wildly, pissed off by Bucket's consistent dodging.

"Bastion, restrain him! We took the first one out. Let's finish this one off."

My presence seems to confuse the Vigil. The enormous Protector uppercuts the enemy, catches him mid-air, and binds all four of his legs behind him. Sadly, they don't break. Doesn't matter, time for pleasure fatality!

"The Vigil's in the past were able to instantly transmit information and adapt to any level of discomfort," Bucket says quickly, but I'm faster and already with my muzzle buried in the Vigil's crotch.

Wait, what did he mean by adapt?

My unconscious is thankfully smarter than my working brain, reinforcing my insides just as the Vigil's privates spear me like a kebab and release something acidic all over. Gurgling in pain, I roll over from the spiked member, insides torn like from barbed wire.

It's gonna be hard healing this one. Not to self - never have sex with a giant steel cactus.

Shutting down my pain receptors so I can think clearly, I focus on regeneration of my internal organs before I die.

The furious Vigil ignores Bucket now and tears through Bastion's defenses. The Protector's armor holds for a moment, but just like with me, the Vigil's claws are too sharp and strong. Bleeding from a dozen of open wounds, Bastion hesitates for a fraction of a second, giving the Vigil time to...

...nearly swipe Bound Tome jumping in to deflect the blow in half. The shower of blood splatters all over the Vigil.

The mage collapses in shock instantly and Bastion jerks the body away while Bucket allows the Vigil to hit him to get his attention. The steel plates of the robot's armor dent but hold.

Blood flowing from Bound Tome's torso sliced open and from his mouth, Bastion puts the mage carefully on the ground. The tainted unicorn gurgles something.

I can say I'm honestly surprised he is still conscious, not to mention alive.

"Back... planned..." Bound Tome croaks.

Bastion leans back, eyes wide.

"Go... back..."

The Protector huffs, but stands back up to help Bucket unable to do more than avoid the Vigil. Honestly, how can he maintain a hundred percent dodge rate when he doesn't want to get hit is beyond me. He is ancient as well, thought, he might have something in his head that allows him to read the Vigils easily.

Bound Tome's horn shimmers, and his wounds knot together. Stumbling, he stands back up.

"I really hope... nopony tells princess Luna... about my blood magic studies," he mumbles.

Tome's blood clinging to the Vigil's coat drips, soaking through the skin, flowing inside his nose and ears.

"Bastion, blast the monster!" Bound Tome orders, croaking in attempt to raise his voice. His horn shimmers with sanguine red glow, "Bucket, full power! I think I can slow his adaptability."

The Protector goes full beast and starts carelessly mauling the Vigil. The blows work. The Vigil hisses in pain. Bastion grabs the Vigil again, turning him towards Bucket with the spirals on his horn leaving blind spots in my eyes. Up close, the robot's laser beam cuts the Vigil open.

"Arhg!" Bound Tome's horn flickers out, accompanied by hissing from the Vigil. The empowered pony's blood bursts out, turning to acid and melting his body into a pool of goo.

"Hehehe... hehe... hlrgh!" the unicorn plants his face into the ground, out like a light. Bastion rushes to him like an extremely furious guard dog, standing over the tainted unicorn's body and growling even at Bucket just passing by towards me.

"I'll be... fine... ish," I huff when the robot points his horn towards me, "Already stopped... my spleen... from bleeding. Go help... Cromach..."

"I strongly believe it is Harmony's patchwork avatar who needs help," the robot drones, smugness in his mechanical voice.

"What?"

"Never get between this griffon and his alicorn, young Queen. The god learned that the hard way... and is about to get a repeat lesson. To their love, even death is only a minor setback."

Growling like a wild beast, Cromach tirelessly assaults the patchwork alicorn. The expression of utter horror on the alicorn's face as he barely avoids yet another axe swing brings smile to my muzzle.

The revenant rolls to the side, only to be kicked so hard he flies few steps up. Cromach's axe cleaves the stone stairs clean through, sticking in them. Seeing his opportunity, the alicorn...

...doesn't attack?

 **"I am giving you one final chance. You have earned it. Do you want to be happy again?"** the alicorn stands up without doing anything even remotely hostile. He then speaks in a completely different voice. This voice is young, worried, shy, but most of all - hopeful and tired, "Cro? This is... I... is it really you?"

"Blaze?" Cromach looks at the alicorn in utter disbelief. Then he shakes his head, "No, you killed him!"

"Yes," the alicorn admits, "I am not him, but I can be. Show me what I can become for you again. Show me that you haven't forgotten me, and I will never again leave you," he spreads his front legs into an embrace.

"No..." I croak and try to get up, still unable to move properly on wobbly legs, "Bullshit..."

Cromach looks at all of us with despair in his eyes.

"I... I have to try," he hugs the alicorn, "I- urgh!"

He looks down at a tentacle coming from the alicorn's chest and spearing him through, blood flowing from his beak.

 **"Catbirds, so easy to manipulate. Emotions, pointless distractions from perfect-"**

The alicorn rising up twitches and turns his head east where the fourth and final guiding pillar crumbles on the ground. Celestia and Twilight did their job.

 **"Annoying PESTS!"** he pushes Cromach off of the spike which retracts into his body, **"Enough games, time to end all of you!"**

"No," a single set of talons crushes the alicorn's neck. Cromach, lightning coursing through his body, rises from his kneeling position and rears on his hind legs, picking the alicorn up by his neck with just one leg, "Time to finally put an end to you!"

The alicorn chokes, kicks the griffon, but his every strike is deflected by crackling blue barrier appearing at the point of impact.

 **"What is this?! How? I can really bring him back! You can't stop me anyway. I am a god, I WILL BE BACK!"**

"Maybe," the griffon's muscles bulge, grip tightening.

The alicorn's windpipe cracks, making him flail wildly, groan and gasp for breath.

 **"You are losing your only chance to fill the hole in your heart!"**

"I will wait FOREVER if I must, puny god. Blaze will come back to me."

 **"I purged his divine power before his death. Your alicorn is dead and gone without me. Enjoy your raging insanity and eternal loneliness, griff-"**

With a snap and a roar of thunder, Cromach rips the alicorn's head off, silencing the god's avatar once and for all.

Worn out, he sits down on the pyramid steps and buries his face in his talons.

I can feel thousands bursts of confusion from every single Corrupted in the area. Their minds are no longer behind an unbreakable wall. There they are, all shapes of minds in front of me, terrified and leaderless. From the faint remnants of the god's will, I trace a tether to the top of the pyramid.

This isn't over yet, then.

Stumbling and nearly falling over, I grind my way up the pyramid stairs. Forcefully healing myself from the brink of death twice in several minutes is exhausting even for me, but I must ignore it. There is something up there, something that will determine the future of the Corrupted...

...the future of my entire species.

It takes me forever to get there. On the platform marking the top of the pyramid, there lies only a slab of stone, an altar of some sort, and in an indent on it a perfect, completely black, hoof-sized sphere.

I hear hoofsteps behind me.

Celestia.

"I sense divine power in that thing," she nods towards the sphere.

"They... we are being manipulated through this."

"Then I can use it," Celestia focuses on the sphere, evil smile forming on her muzzle, "I can restore our world, wipe out the scourge that DESTROYED MY EQUESTRIA!"

She pushes me away, hoof about to touch the sphere, and stops. Impaled on my barbed tail, I pull the alicorn away from the sphere. Tentacles spawn around me, grabbing my legs and slamming me into the stony steps. Celestia pulls my tail out of her side.

I rip the tentacles into pieces and tackle her, punching and swiping at her as we roll around the platform.

"We... deserve... a chance!" I gasp for breath, not letting Celestia gain the upper hoof. She is bigger and possibly stronger, but I have much better control over my Corrupted trainsformations and mind control. Driving my desperate will into her mind, I can slow her movements down to gain some advantage.

"THEY WILL BURN!" Celestia roars.

Haze of orange flames blinds me. I roll away.

The Corrupted alicorn is gone. Instead, there stands a pure white version, molten red sun on her flank turning to gold, and her fiery mane fading into a flowing rainbow of colours. Her raw divine power makes the air around her distort and shimmer.

So, this is the real alicorn. Not a tainted and tarnished version of one but the real divine creation.

And it's up to me to stop her from wiping all Corrupted out via a single thought transmitted all over the land. I give talking one last try, mostly just to buy me time to recover.

"We are not evil! We are new to this world, we have no idea what to do, and until now we were driven to kill by an insane god thirsty for revenge! We are by no means good, but we are not evil!" I repeat myself in the end.

"You are too much of a threat," her words make me growl uncontrollably and I lunge at her like a wild beast. Her horn flares with the plasmatic heat of thousand suns.

The air around both of us blurs. My entire body is enveloped by purple tethers disallowing any movement. Celestia is lifted by the same force into the air, struggling against it and failing.

Twilight walks up the staircase, eyes and horn glowing with magic beyond understanding of both me and Celestia.

"Celestia," Twilight purposefully omits Celestia's title she's been using until now, "This is not your choice, and even if it was it would be the wrong one. You taught me that everypony deserves a second chance. YOU made me the princess of... friendship. As such, I, princess Twilight Sparkle, the steward of Equestria, grant this choice to Nightshade."

"Twilight!" Celestia snarls.

"PRINCESS Twilight!" the purple alicorn just adds coldly, making Celestia's eyes go wide. She turns to me and her magical prison lets me go, "I hope you make the right decision."

I walk over to the sphere and wrap my claws around it.

My mind fills with millions of others, more than I can ever hope to control, but I can touch every single Corrupted from the starving runts south in the Badlands, through all the thriving ones around Ponyville, up to Spring's hive in the Crystal Empire and others even further in the frozen north.

"I think... just a little more willingness to communicate would be enough. Harmony's bloodlust is fading from them already. They won't be slaves, and I certainly won't order them to kill themselves. They deserve their place in this world, WE deserve our place no matter which accident or intent created us. All we need is a little willingness to talk before mating with everything we see."

It won't change the surface too much. No, that's up to diplomats, ponies striking deals with new free hives, and it's up to all sides to realize they need each other on their own. There will be wars for territory, but those will happen of their own free will, not on anyone else's orders.

Feeling all the tiny minds shift to accommodate my command, I smile and crush the black sphere into tiny shards which evaporate into nothing.

Frozen air blows through the valley as the black Barrier separating it from the rest of the world shatters. The weeping purple sky returns to winter grey once more.

Walking down the stairs followed by Twilight and Celestia, I watch the city Corrupted swarm around the pyramid. They aren't touching any of our wounded down there, which is a good sign.

A single female Corrupted walks up to me as I descend down the final step. She is smaller than me, but bulky and covered in protective scales. She gives me a curious glance. I smile at her.

Yeah, these guys will need a Protector Queen just like ponies still need me.

"We are leaving. You are free to forge your own destiny, but if you ever need a guide, Chilly and I will gladly see you or your emissary in Canterlot."

She might not understand the words, but allows my mind to touch hers and share the message.

She nods, bows, and the Corrupted start leaving the pyramid square, sniffing stones and circling the buildings as if seeing them for the first time.

In the end, the only remaining Corrupted are Celestia's Golden Legion standing in perfect ranks, side by side like a poster army.

Celestia looks at me, then at her soldiers, then at me again, and then sighs.

"You have done enough to deserve your rest thousandfold, my brave ponies," she announces in a clear voice ringing through the square, "You have protected your land and made your princ- me proud. Good night."

One by one, the soldiers salute, their forms dissipating into Corrupted biomass and draining into the cracks inbetween cobblestones. After a century of fighting an enemy beyond their own power, they finally found peace.

"Well done, both of you," Twilight smiles and pats both me and Celestia on the back, "Just one final thing."

"Hmm?" we both give her a quizzical look.

"Lyam, Bucket, Desert Shade," Twilight nods to the griffon and the barely standing hippogriff, "Are you done?"

"Just about, yes," Lyam stops fumbling with a mechanical tower three times his height he must have constructed while we were up on the pyramid, "Just need a power source," he shoves a cable into Bucket's mouth who just frowns.

The mobile radio station springs to life with gentle humming and beeping. The red glowing dot on the interface turns green. Twilight puts on a pair of headphones and speaks into a microphone.

"Twilight to Ponyville, Twilight ot Ponyville. Who is on watch today?"

A female voice answers and Twilight switches between the headphones and general speakers.

"Luna...?" Twilight grins.

"Twilight? How are things? Are you at the Barrier?" comes from the speakers.

"Umm, I have a surprise for you," Twilight gestures Celestia to come over.

"Hi, Loony," says the gently smiling alicorn.

"W...wh..." I hear a sniff, "CELESTIA?!"

"Nice to hear you again, Loony," Celestia wipes her tearing up eyes and sniffs as well, "Guess I am the forgotten sister now, aren't I?"


	36. Epilogue: Bound Tome's visitor

Some thirty years after his visit to the sacrificial valley beyond White Tail Woods, Bound Tome still looked as if he was only nearing the fourth decade of his life rather than approaching his sixties. Being touched by corruption was a good way of attaining longevity, as more and more ponies realized these days. The threat of losing their minds was just a minor deterrent to the brave youngsters seeking Corrupted either in the wild or in cities.

"Heh, youngsters," Bound Tome chuckled, leaving a bunched up group of tentacles serving as a lectern. One of them lenghtened and put the book they were all holding at eye height on a nearby table. Bound Tome shook his head at the sight, "I sound like an old pony."

"Grrghm!" he heard a dismissive grunting from the library entrance. The towering Protector Bastion was still keeping him company even after all these years, protecting the mage from loneliness, tax collectors, and failed summoning spells. Three slick tongues came from Bastion's mouth and licked his muzzle, giving Tome a steamy look.

The tainted unicorn just chuckled again.

"We still have a book to transcribe today. The royal library never waits."

"Mmmm," Bastion sat back down, grumbling in disappointment.

"Good news, though," tentacles sprouted from the carpeted floor and brought a different book in front of Bound Tome's muzzle, "A new codex of wizardry came out this week and guess who made it in!"

"Grrwgrg..."

"Exactly! I did," Tome flips a bunch of pages, "B-b-b-b-b, here it is! Bound Tome, the first unicorn wizard to successfully integrate the abilities of Corrupted and unicorn magic into a new form of spellcasting. Specialist on the theory of dark magic and the practice of blood magic. His biggest success to this day remains a spell tantalizing for many a young unicorn promising to summon a Corrupted-like entity serving one's physical desires without the threat of being tainted," Bound Tome huffs, "They could have left the dark arts out, it's not like I'm some sort of shadow lord set on taking over the world. "

"Heh heh heh," Bastion covers his mouth with his huge clawed front legs.

"Still, I'm the only one able to do this, which I am sure frustrates 'many a young unicorn', " his black horn glistens and the form of a beautiful mare, all slick and black sprouts from the carpet, "Having the balls to study Queen Nightshade's Corruptors proved quite the... asset," he slaps the summoned mare's wide flank.

A second later the fake Corrupted splatters all over the area as Bastion does the same thing with rather catastrophic result. The Protector snickers as the black fluid from the summoned mare dissipates, leaving no trace whatsoever.

"Don't be jealous," Bound Tome rolls his eyes.

Bastion just presents his behind and flicks his tail in response.

"Later! As I said, I still have work to do," Tome summons another fake female Corruptor, much to Bastion's annoyed growling, "I'm just practicing," the phantom does some stretching and jumping before disappearing, "It's still pretty complicated to do it without a stabilizing ritual, just using willpower."

"Mhmm."

"I refute any and all allegations that I just wanted to see a flexible mare stretch for me."

Bastion snorts, then his ears perk up and he gives the library door a confused stare.

"I felt it too," Bound Tome quickly listed possible defensive spells in his head. While he pondered the surge of power in the hallway outside, looking for possible reasons of somepony using unique unnatural transportation method to get to the Canterlot royal library without taking the official route, the door opened.

Bastion immediately pounced, claws ready and teeth bared. Tome knew to trust the Protector. If there was somepony they knew outside, Bastion would have not reacted like that.

The overbearing Corrupted stopped mid-air, held by tendrils of pink and gold flames. Wherever the fire touched, it made Bastion's taint recede, leaving lighter grey marks in his black coat. Black tentacles taking place of Bound Tome's levitation shot out to entangle the invader and dispersed into black mist before they touched him. Seeing Bastion struggling in vain against the burning chains holding him in the air, Bound Tome got ready to unleash possibly literal hell on the intruder.

Three things stopped him. One, Bastion wasn't being hurt, only restrained with the side effect of the corruption in him reacting to the power holding him in an absolutely unique way. Two, the faintest memory of the entering alicorn being in some way familiar. And three, a definitely familiar voice saying:

"Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work."

A second visitor stepped through the door behind the incoming alicorn.

"Desert Shade?" Tome's eyes went wide, "Haven't seen you in years."

"Yeah, I've been busy," she grins, "Recently with this guy," she nods her head to the silent alicorn, "By the way, tell Bastion to calm down before he gets hurt."

Tome waved at Bastion. The two could communicate without words if needed, but they never used it unless in danger. Well, that DID happen from time to time, even to the reclusive royal librarian. When Bastion stopped struggling and growling, the alicorn's burning tendrils put him back on the carpet.

Feeling a little safer, Bound Tome examined the alicorn.

Bluish grey eyes stared back at him, mirroring the examination. Bound Tome was used to the royal princesses almost glowing with divine power, but this stallion looked shabby in comparison.

Blonde mane fading into platinum in places. Bronze coat, reflecting the burning flames fading around his front leg that used to hold Bastion, shedding in places. Look of complete exhaustion in his face. All those contrasted sharply with the alicorn looking around thirty.

However, even the princesses had to be cautious around powerful Corrupted like Bastion. This guy simply did not consider the Protector a threat.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Bound Tome asked.

"Are you Bound Tome, the inventor of a spell allowing one travel inside the contents of a book?" asked the alicorn.

Tome nodded. The spell was not difficult or groundbreaking. His reaction upon discovering a context allowing him to finish the spell had been disinterest, mostly due to believing that nopony bothered with finishing magic of that sort because it was useless. All it basically did was allowing the caster to talk to fictional characters to gain knowledge past what was written inside their book, possibly to find out what the author wanted to say with context and didn't manage to.

Useless, pretty much.

"Yes, in flesh."

"This library used to hold the journals of an ancient wizard called Starswirl the Beared," said the alicorn with certainty, "Are they still here?"

Or maybe not so useless. That alicorn was smart, but not smart enough. Tome had tried to use the spell on the journal, but it hadn't worked as he hoped.

"Indeed they are, but Starswirl refuses to talk about his research if you contact his written avatar. Believe me, I tried."

"You just have to know the right question to ask. Starswirl knew about the deities of this world more than anypony else ever. I need to speak to him, or to something as close to him as possible."

"And what would the right question be?" Tome asked, shiver running down his spine. He knew well enough that gods meant trouble.

"I need to know what stopped him from crafting the third Blade of Balance."

"Third? None of the journals ever hinted at there being more than two. Why would there be three?"

A black-handled greatsword with silvery blade appeared in the air next to the alicorn and violently stabbed into the floor.

"One-" the alicorn growled.

The second sword, ivory-handled with ashen grey blade did the same, sending sparks over the carpet.

"-to kill-"

A sword shape without any features, just looking like a hole into darkness, appeared in the air and simply disappeared again.

"-each god."


End file.
